Perfect Timing
by gracefuldays
Summary: Sequel to my old fic "Dreams of the End": two years has passed and Egon and Janine managed to grow closer and are now in a steady relationship. One day, after a particularly bad bust, the encounter with a mysterious person will change their fate drastically. (E/J & few bad words ahead)
1. Chapter 1

Dying sunlight of a late November afternoon was lazily lighting up the firehall, making dust dance in its rays. No one was around except for the Ghostbusters' secretary, currently busy talking on the phone. She kept the earpiece balanced on her shoulder as she filed her nails and almost dropped it when whoever was at the other end of the line gave her huge news.

"No kiddin'? Forreal?"

She barely noticed the garage's doors opening and the car being parked in its usual spot, so much she was enthrilled.

As Ecto1's engine was turned off, the guys could hear Janine's voice raise in a joyful laughter and as they tidied up the car, a variety of giggles and delighted squeals hanging in the air.

Call ended, Peter sat down on Janine's desk, right next to the phone. - "That sounded like an interesting call."- his finger slid in between the phone's buttons, digging up dust and making him hastily rub it against his leg. He grimaced. - "Wasn't some rich client, was it?"

"No, Dr V, it wasn't"- the secretary replied nonchalantly as she set aside the file and resumed feeding data into the computer - "It was someone much more important."

"Define 'important'"- he interposed his face between Janine's and the monitor, noticing how her eyes still sparkled.

Erupting from her chair, she locked him in a deathhug- "It's so wonderful!"- she shrieked in delight.

Her reaction made the other men gather up around the desk.

"What's wonderful, Janine?"- Ray ventured, cleaning his hands with a rag.

"My friend just called and she's gonna get married!"- she announced letting go of the psychologist, who seriously risked rolling off the desk.- "I'm so happy for her!"

The auburn haired man's face lit up almost to match hers and produced a big smile- "That's great news! Give her our best regards!"

Wiston was about to say something when his eye caught a glimpse of the physicist slowly walking towards the stairs. He suppressed a smile, pretending he didn't see nothing.

"Thank you Ray"- Janine quickly combed a stray lock of hair into place, regaining composure before shooting a dark look to the man on the stairs, pinning him where he stood- "Although I'd have preferred to hear those words from someone else."  
"Gotcha there"- Winston finally allowed himself to laugh, meeting Peter's amused look.

"Uhm..."- Egon leaned over the handrailing. On Earth as well as on a couple of parallel dimentions there was a small number of entities able to make his voice unsteady; Janine happened to be one of them.- "...Greetings?"

She shook her head, inhaled deeply and went back to her data feeding task- "You really don't get it, do you?"- she sighed in an undertone, letting the matter drop.

* * *

"You really ticked her off earlier"- Peter casually slipped in during dinner. That omelette surely was one of their worst culinary experiments.

"I believe it's none of your businness, Doctor."- dryly replied the physicist as he donated his share of food to an extremely happy Slimer.  
"Hard to admit it, but Pete's right"- Winston put in, moving aside just in time not to be slimed by their ghostly friend. Peter produced a protesting sound, but his face was amused: Egon was already starting to look uneasy. Winston resumed talking- "You gotta accept that since Ahriman attacked us your relationship developed a lot. Don't you think it's normal for her to start to feel the need to create a new family?"

Egon's face would have seemed perfectly neutral to anyone, but they noticed one eyebrow slightly contracting. His mind wandered through those past two years: the news of her friends getting married always left a bittersweet shadow in her eyes. News of them having kids left her closed up in a weird mutism. That day they decided to have a stroll at Central Park and he noticed her glancing to the many young couples playing with their children.

A dry "Oh." escaped his lips the moment it all got to him.

Before anyone could make any kind of remark, he excused himself muttering something about some experiment he absolutely had to finish and exited the room a tad too quickly.

* * *

Another sunny day passed, then a rainy one came, then again a sunny one.

Janine hit the 'save' key and closed the writing program. Billing was such a boring task, especially on such a warm day. The street door was closed, no one called in hours. She stretched her arms and yawned, reaching then for her purse. Looked like a good moment to take a break and take care of her nails. Then maybe a good coffee.

She nodded mentally and got rid of her shoes, resting her numb legs over the desk. Doing so she accidentally hit the purse, that rolled on one side: a photo slid out and she commanded her abs to do her a favour and let her grab the piece of plastified paper before it flew off the desk – possibly without falling to the ground herself in the meanwhile.

It was a pic from the latest family dinner held at her parent's place. Egon was there aswell and the shutter caught the exact moment he made an amused smile to her youngest niece, offering him her doll.

"He does like kids"- she thought to herself- "And he's good at dealing with them, so why just couldn't we..."

She shook her head- "Stop this immediately, Melnitz." - she mentally commanded to herself- "You're borderlining obsessive here. Took the guy a lifetime to realize his dream, you know a family would hold him up." - she sighed- "Yeah, the guys are family. They are to me too... Why can't I just erase this thought?"

Drawing out her pocket mirror, she critically looked at her face- "Well, that's cause you're gonna be thirty soon."

Her monologue with herself couldn't continue further as she was distracted by the garage door opening. She took her legs off the desk and quickly tucked away the photo and the mirror. Lifting her head to perform her usual scan of the guys made her blood freeze.

They evidently had just gone through a bad bust. The car was a mess of mud and dust, and its occupants looked as messy. First one stepping out of Ecto was Peter: his left wrist was bandaged. He helped out of the car their occultist, whose forehead carried a long cut. It wasn't bandaged so the secretary assumed it was superficial, although looking bad. They were followed by Winston – his hair grey with dust- and Egon, carrying a forming bruise on his right cheekbone.

She let out a sigh of relief. No serious wounds taken that day and luckily bad busts had decreased over the years, thanks to their growing experience.  
She stood up and walked towards them for her ritual close-up checkup - "You ok, guys?"

"Don't worry, Janine"- Ray smiled, immediately regretting it because a scratch on his cheeck sent an itchy wave of pain to his system.- "It's only a couple of bruises."

"This is no bruise."- Peter muttered massaging his injured wrist, he had an angry look on his face.

The woman eyed him with a shade of worry- "What happened?"

"Bastard made me lose my balance and I fell at the wrong angle."- he put up his standard grin and patted her shoulder as he walked towards the stairs- "Shower's mine!"

Janine wondered how stupid accidents like such always made his blood boil. _Cause that's when you get hurt the most._ She turned to the guys again to ask for more information about that bust, but before she could ask Winston filled her in.

"We failed to trap the gooper on first try and it bounced right out of the trap and bumped into Peter."- He paused a second to dust off his head- "His thrower slipped off his hand and a loose stream made a ledge fall on us."  
Janine stepped back as Ray helped the black man freeing his hair from layers of lime. She needed a good motive to risk ruining her favourite shirt, afterall.

"I might be out of spare glasses"- Egon stated, drawing a pair of shattered glasses from his front pocket. Those glasses had seen better days.

"Just be glad it didn't happen to you, man".

Egon smiled at Winston's down-to-earth remark and threw the useless glasses into the trashbin.

* * *

"You should ditch glasses and start using contacts on a daily basis, y'know?"

Janine commented while awkwardly straddling Egon on the couch, trying to get a drop of artificial tears to fall clean on his eye- "Can't you stop blinking? C'mon!" - she giggled, losing her balance for a scary second.

The man steadied her by grabbing her shoulders- "Hey! You almost poked my eye out!"  
"That's cause you kept blinking!"- she started laughing, bracing herself on his shoulders as she shifted position.

"I'm blinking cause these contact lenses hurt!"- he tried not to, but he ended up laughing with her - "Hand over your weapon!"

She shook her head and brought the little bottle to her chest- "Mine."

Her eyes sparkled in a playful amusement. When they first started dating she could never ever imagine one day she'd be having a tickle fight on an old squeaky couch with uber-serious, uber-controlled Egon Spengler.

She'd usually lure him with the promise of dinner or to accompany him to any event of his liking and then try to get him to her bedroom. Sometimes she'd win, sometimes she'd lose. Sometimes they'd even end up in a tie, when _someone_ would fall asleep on the couch even before game started. Offcourse that someone was never her, but couldn't blame the guy for being dead tired after an intense day.

She stopped wondering about their nights together when she found herself restrained with her back on the couch and his arms tightly holding her still. She hoped for a romantic exploit.

His lips came real close to her ear, to the point she could feel his warm breath.

"This thing will break if we keep on abusing it with childish games"

Barely holding a sigh to his obvious missing of a good chance of romance, she turned her face to meet his eyes- "You know, you just missed your kissing cue, Egon."

"Oh. I apologize." - he was having a hard time learning not to miss vital cues.

She smiled the same smile her mom would give her when failing on a school test and sat up, pushing him up with her. The couch gave an alarming loud squeak.

"This couch needs to be thrown out asap"- she moaned, feeling a hard lump pushing against her thigh. Probably a spring gave up and came loose.

He remained silent and she thought he was taking the chance to lubricate his eyes while she was busy poking the spring back into its original place, but the atmosphere felt a tad too heavy.

"What's wrong?"- she looked at his face. It was dangerously serious.

"I... I am sorry, Janine"- he said.

"No need to apologize, I was just joking."- the redhead slid an arm around his waist. - "I didn't mean to..."

"No, not about that."- he faintly smiled. Was that a shade of bitterness on his face?- "I'm just sorry it took me so long to understand your feelings."

"My feelings.."- she echoed, feeling lost.

"I thought back to the last year we spent together."- he glanced at her for a second, then resumed looking at the coffee table- "About the times you talked about your friends getting married, about the times you'd talk about their children or about your niece..."

She mentally slapped herself. She should have guessed he'd go there. "Stop this immediately"- she cut him off- "True, I dream of a family of my own. I don't deny it. But it's also true that I want it to be with you."

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but she placed a finger over his lips- "Your pace. We can do it, your pace."

He looked relieved and smiled, moving a bit aside to hold her against his chest.

"I hope I'll be still alive by then"- he whispered to her hair.

She shivered, holding him - "Egon... What's going on?"

He'd never make such statement if he didn't know something was seriously wrong. Ghosts had been all kinds of weird in the past weeks. Was some demon coming up?

"Tolay is coming to take his revenge on me."- he couldn't believe it himself, but the readings couldn't possibly be lying.

"You and the guys took down any kind of demon, god and demigod these past years. You'll win this fight too."- Janine's voice was absolutely confident.

He smiled, playing with a lock of her hair- "I hope you're right."


	2. Chapter 2

"The analysis of the city's PKE levels leave no chance to doubt."- Egon commented handing a stack of papers to his friend.

Ray sat down and placed the huge amount of data analysis on the table, in front of him. He skimmed through some pages- "Egon, are we sure it is Tolay and not some other creature?" - he paused to pay attention to a specific graphic- "Might it be a similar entity? That time he held captive we did save Tolay's readings, but it's also true that our equipment was not advanced as it is now."- he traced with his index finger the line of the graphic he was looking at.

"I'm positive the analysis is correct. What is the chance that another entity of about the same characteristics as Tolay can exist within the same space-temporal cohordinates as him?"- the physicist shook his head- "It's a chance so small not to be statistically relevant."

"You should really be more careful when picking out enemies"- Peter said as he casually entered the lab. He plopped down on the nearest chair and lifted the opening ring-pull of his canned beer.

"Peter, please be carefu..." - Egon's words were cut off by the noise of the can opening. A small spurt of foam fizzled and dripped on the psychologist's hand. He licked his own hand before the liquid could hit the floor – or stain his shoes.

"Everything's under control."- Peter grinned right before taking a long sip of the cold liquid.

A happy tune started playing. "Guys! It's showtime!"- it was Winston calling from the TV area.

Ray ditched the papers in a second, glancing at the wall clock - "Wait for me!"- he yelled jumping up from his seat and rushing to the lounge. He reappeared after a couple of seconds, only to throw his lab coat on the rack.

Peter and Egon watched in silence, amused by the scene.

"Would you shut all of your gizmos off and watch tv with us poor mortals?"

The blond sighed- "I need to keep analyzing data. If there were even one chance my analysis' not correct..."

The smaller man smelled the lie at once- "Egon, what are you trying to hide?"

Egon's face got slightly pinker. He shrugged it off and decided to tell the truth although his original plan was to reveal his true findings once he was 100% sure about them. It would have probably been a foolish thing to do. Fidgeting with his suspenders, he took a couple seconds more to think.

"Egon?"- Peter was getting worried now. He put the can on the table and held the taller man's wrists. He smelled trouble.

"I... hid the truth from Raymond." - the man was feeling a bit ashamed- "At first I thought I had incorrectly calculated the PKE values. I may have to repeat the tests two more times, but by now I am quite sure Tolay's energy levels are about fifteen times higher than when we last met him. Which would be impossible. Unless he merged with one or more other entities."

Peter's stomach twisted. Fifteen times more powerful. Seriously?

"If my estimations are correct, then I can already tell you that our equipment would be unable to contain such power."- Egon paused before resuming talking yet again- "I don't want Ray – as well as you and Winston- to start worrying before I am completely sure. It's a matter of a few more hours."

He would have liked to add also that he was planning to offer his life to the demon to save his friends as well as the city (if not the whole planet). He refrained from giving Peter this particular piece of information.

"We've seen other ones able to suck in weaker entities, but is it really possible for him to grow so fast? Was it just 4 or 3 years ago when we took Tolay's readings?" - Peter really hoped his friend's huge brain was playing tricks on him.

"That's where my doubts lay."- Their data about the Netherworld was probably still not sufficient to establish what exactly had given Tolay such powers. If his powers were such at all.

"Let's face it, you're stuck right now."- Peter put an arm around his friend's shoulders- "Take the night off and rest. Tomorrow we'll figure it out. Together."- he squeezed his shoulder lightly before drawing away his arm and walking out of the lab to join the others.

Egon turned his computer off. Picking up the beer can, he drank the little left of it and threw it into the trashbin before turning off the light and following Peter downstairs.

* * *

Days passed and the guys never could find a moment to actually stop and work on the mystery. As it always happened before major trouble coming, ghosts seemed to be poping out everywhere at all times of day and night.

"I'm through! This is the third night in a row we ain't getting any sleep!"- Peter threw himself on the couch, covering his face with a pillow.

"Hang on, Peter."- Winston sat down offering him a cup of coffee- "Our two boygeniuses are onto something. Looks like they haven't been out of the lab since when we left, they're probably very close to figuring it out."

"Yeah, and we're getting to do the dirty job while they brainstorm."- Peter took an uncareful sip and yelped- "Ouch! It's HOT!"

"By the way, be careful. Coffee's hot."- Winston chuckled, blowing on his own cup.

"Thank you very much." - the psychologist sighed.

* * *

Night went and office hours came. It was all too quiet. No wind, no clouds. A perfectly serene November sky. The firehall was immersed in silence. Too quiet.

Janine was sharing a cup of coffee with two really tired Ghostbusters.

"You guys look awful. Had any sleep at all these days?"- she sounded worried. She was. Judging from Egon's pessimistic behaviour from that last night they had spent together, days earlier, something huge was up.

Peter's answer to her question was a soft snoring. He had fallen asleep sitting up, his face propped up by his hands.

She and Winston smiled, suppressing a laughter not to wake him up, but their effort was useless: thudding footsteps came from the upper floor and down the stairs. "This is bad!"- Ray yelled, waking Peter up abruptly- "This is SO bad! We need to call the Mayor!"

"Is he possessed?"- Janine wondered, sitting up in time to see the occultist rush to the nearest phone. No one had explained her what was going on so, seeing Egon rush down the stairs as madly as Ray had just done, made her realize something had to be incredibly wrong.

The call seemed to last for hours. Winston and Peter stood at Janine's sides, in silence, as the two scientists gave instructions to whoever had picked up the call. From what the redhead could make out of the hectic telephonic conversation, Central Park needed to be vacated.

Silence fell again over the firehouse when the call ended. They all remained silent.

"Guys."- Janine didn't feel like playing silence games- "Tell me real quick what's going on."

"Tolay's coming much sooner than we expected."- Ray was so upset he was almost yelling- "And we don't have anything powerful enough to trap him!"

"We might be able to seal the interdimensional portal if we act fast enough, though."- Egon was able to go back to his usual, collected, self. He still had his secret B-plan to hang on to if nothing else worked.

"Say what?"- Winston scratched his forehead- "Don't tell me it means we're gonna cross streams again."

"I'm afraid so, Winston"- the physicist's reply was simple, and scary enough to make silence engulf them once more.

Peter finished his cup of coffee and slammed it on the table- "Let's do it! I need sleep."

"I'm coming along." - Janine crossed her arms- "You look like you could use some extra help."

"No way, Janine."

The reply had such a harsh tone she couldn't believe it was coming from her boyfriend. She frowned, decided to fight- "Why can't I come? Don't forget I've had my share of experience too."- blood rushed to her head in rage because of the unpolite response, but she tried to keep it cool- "You're in no position to turn down extra help. I'm the only help you can have."

She was making a lot of sense. They hated it, but she was right. Ray was about to say something, but he got frozen by a meaningful glance from Peter:_ 'let them fix this between themselves'_.

Egon took off his glasses and cleaned them with the hem of his shirt- "I'm sorry, I must've sounded harsh."- he put the glasses back on the bridge of his nose- "But please, just take a moment to reflect and then answer to my question: If we were to die, who would be the only living person familiar with the safety codes of the containment unit?"

Overhearing those words, Slimer got out of his hiding place and dived straight for Ray's arms. The man could only pat him as his quiet sobbing filled the room.

"I... didn't even think about that." - Janine admitted, lowering her eyes and biting her bottom lip real close to the point of wounding it with her canine. She closed her eyes and inhaled. Gotta trust them. Gotta believe in them. Exhaling, she felt her mind clear up enough to decide to obey- "Ok then. This time I'll stay here and babysit your precious unit. Don't make a habit outta it."

She smiled and her smile made a smirk appear on Peter's face. Mood had lightened, and it was time to take action.

"Are the packs ready?" - Winston asked, knowing they couldn't lose any more time in chitchat.

"Already been charged and loaded on Ecto."- it was Ray replying, still busy trying to calm down their domestic ghost- "We got ready the destabilizer too. Just gotta go grab it. Oh and let's not forget to wear the exoskeleton suits."

"Suits?"- Peter echoed, his voice annoyed - "You know I don't like it when you two guys play fashion designers."

"Aw, Peter, I know you'll like 'em! Took us months to assemble them but never got a real chance to test."- Ray's eyes were full of excitement, the thought they were gonna try their latest toys making him bounce as if they were about ready to go picnic.- "They're made of a special reinforced ceramic as well as..."

"Gimme a break, will you?"- the psychologist groaned, definitely NOT happy to be guinea pig- "Let's just get ready and get going."

Everyone wore their 'suit' and the destabilizer was carefully transferred from the lab to their car. A few minutes later, Three Ghostbusters and a ghost were waiting next to the converted hearse, checking equipment one last time before leaving. They had decided to quietly give some room to Egon and Janine still lingering upstairs: it could have been their last goodbye, everyone was well aware of it. Parting wouldn't have taken long, it wasn't their style. Especially during a major emergency.

The couple walked down the stairs together, her arm around his waist and his arm around her shoulders. The weight of what was about to come pressed heavy on the observers' guts as they observed them descending down the staircase, a tad too slowly to be their normal pace.

* * *

As they were commanded by the Major, police and army's joined forces were closing Central Park off fairly quickly.

The green scenery of the park had just started to be tainted by a blue mist, spreading from the area where the portal was about to be ripped open. Colour started to dense mid-air, forming a deep blue stain hovering at about 7 feet from the ground.

Ecto1's brakes skreeched when Winston abruptly stopped 80 or 90 feet away from the portal. In a second they were out of the converted hearse and walking towards the quivering stain.

"This thing is heavy and makes me wanna scratch myself."- Peter moaned, scratching his shoulder from under his 'suit'.

"Sorry, we realized too late we should have bought tights or something"- Ray chuckled, imagining themselves wearing tights.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I prefer the itch"- Peter replied, extracting his rifle.

"These exoskeleton suits will prevent us from suffering critical physical damage if involved in falls or if hit."- Egon commented – he was pretty proud of their invention- making Peter groan once more.

They walked in silence until they found themselves standing maybe 20 feet away from the opening portal.

Egon lifted his eyes from his beeping meter- "Gentlemen, power up. He's here."

They lined up, never taking off their eyes from the blue portal turning of a vivid red. A horned head came out first, then long dangerous arms and last his lower body. His eye locked on the four men right in front of him, but he didn't attack. He let go to a ghastly laughter, then he spoke:

"This is the day I avenge my brother's dishonourable capture. And get rid of you." - his unmoving mouth was frozen in a demonic grin as he pointed at the blond Ghostbuster- "Lay down your weapon and come to me. I might even gift you with a quick death if you follow my orders."

"No way."- Peter was the first to talk- "It's you who is gonna have the chance to quietly go back to where you belong... before we decide to kick your ass."

"How delightful... so much energy!"- The demon laughed again his laughter, not moving from where he stood, shielding the portal with his body.

"What now?"- Winston whispered- "People is still being evacuated from the Park."

"We need to buy time"- Ray uttered his reply, glancing around to make sure at least no one was in that particular area.

Tolay's patiently waited for their exchange to be over before speaking again- "All I want is to take my revenge."

He sounded different. He sounded... wiser. Older. Do demons even age? Winston cut that line of thinking before starting to sound ridicolous to himself. He didn't need any stupid thoughts sidetracking him from his mission.

"Do you not believe me?"- Tolay grew in size, towering over them, blocking sunlight from shining on them- "Foolish humans are nothing to me. I do not have interest into slaying your kind. Although it would derive me an incredible pleasure."

The four men didn't reply, just glared at him from where they stood. They still had a chance. Clear the portal, destabilize it.

"I see your little ants are willing to sacrifice your precious little lives to protect my prey."- the demon went back to his original size- "I will not repeat myself again: hand over that man for me to take his life. I will spare your world and your lives and never come back again."

"Wouldn't it be more convenient for you to demand your brother's freedom?"- Peter yelled, his voice fighting against a strong wind, blowing from the point where the demon stood.

"You have no right to ask me questions!"- Tolay's voice roared. A ball of energy appeared above his head, charging up with the power of that supernatural wind- "You fed me up. I shall play with your lives."

He was incredibly fast. So fast they could barely see the pure energy hit the ground and split it open, separating the physicist from his companions.

Shockwave was so strong Egon needed some seconds to stand up again, the voices of his friends reached his ears, still too stunned to manage to process what their words meant.

Struggling not to give up to a wave of vertigo making him sick, he saw them being imprisoned by an energetic field in the form of a barred cage. Tolay sure loved medieval looking stuff. - "Free them immediately"

"What if I do not?"- was the defiant reply of the entity.

"I'm going to blast you"- Egon simply stated, slowly reaching for the 'overload' button on his pack.

"What the hell is he thinking?"- Peter realized what his friend was planning to do. He grabbed the metal-looking bars and yelled at the top of his lunghs- "Run! Run away!"

"I'm sorry Peter, but I'm not running away this time!"- Egon yelled back, never taking his eyes off the creature.

Tolay took a step towards him and a proton stream flashed, hitting his arm.

"Peter.."- Ray put a hand on the psychologist's rifle, shaking his head. One stream was barely strong enough for the demon to feel it. Then Ray nodded in Egon's direction, Peter followed his stare: their friend's hand was sliding on his abdomen to slowly unfasten the proton pack's safety belt.

The demon was in no hurry. He turned to face his prisoners- "You'll be my next game. Until then, do not interfere."- to Tolay's will the cage turned in a solid rectangle, preventing them from making any attempt to help their colleague.

Egon glanced sideways to look at them. He could see them moving their mouths, probably yelling something to him, but he couldn't hear them anymore. Any sound was being blocked by the barrier.

He shot them an apologetic look, taking the pack off his shoulders.

"I give up. Please don't hurt my friends." - he faked a pleading voice- "See, I took off my weapon. I accept your offer."

Tolay's unmoving mouth stretched to form a satisfied grin, another glob of energy forming over his head -"I shall keep my promise then."

Egon took a step towards him, then another. Slowly counting the seconds missing to the complete overload of the proton pack as he held it by its straps. He might have died, but he was the only one still having a chance at closing the portal. He would have complied at all costs.

On the count of 'nineteen', the man hastily sprinted to the side, managing to throw the pack very close to the portal. An astonished Tolay glanced back and forth from the portal to the man for a long second before light invested everything, uprooting trees and cracking up the ground.

The field caging the other three Ghostbusters slowly started to fade, but still protected them from the explosion: they could do nothing but cry the name of their friend, knowing they couldn't be heard.

Dust settling, they could make out Egon's crouching form – had the exoskeleton protected him from the deflagration?

The portal closing and already sucking the demon in didn't prevent him to wail in pain and rage.- "You...!"- he growled, his gigantic hand releasing a bolt of energy as he was mercilessly dragged back to the place he belonged by powers greater than his.

Seeing the column of red light being shot right at him, the only thing Egon could do was uselessly curl up and shield his head with both his arms.

* * *

"This is the only thing left for me to do"- Egon thought as he threw his overloaded pack as far as his muscles would let him to. He just needed the pack to land close enough to the portal... the portal would have absorbed the pack's full power and be destabilized enough to close up... maybe it would have broken up the energetic field, letting the guys out.

Thoughts crowding his mind, he used up those few instants separating him from the explosion to jump away as far as he could.  
The explosion caught Tolay unprepared, but he managed to take hold of the man with one hand, lifting his body as if it was a weightless ragdoll and throwing him away in rage.

Harsh ground wounded the physicist's hands and face as he rolled over and over for countless seconds. He mentally thanked the suit he was wearing under his now torn jumpsuit.

The moment he lifted himself up to crouch, he saw the column of red light being shot towards him: instinct took over reason and adrenaline made him lift his arms over his head. Then something happened.

A silhouette interposed itself between him and the lethal stream for an endless fraction of a second.

Egon could recognize the shape of a young woman facing the portal; a shield of white energy shone and nullified the powerful attack that would have burned him to ashes.

Time slowing down, she looked back at him with pure blue eyes, her long dark hair flowing in the shockwave produced by the explosion.

He blinked and she was gone. Tolay was gone. The portal was gone. Barely able to keep sitting up, the man couldn't stop staring at the spot where the girl had appeared and disappeared.

He was distracted by the noise of running footsteps and by the voices of his friends calling his name. The sting of his many little wounds and cuts made him realize he was still alive. He remembered to blink a few times.

Adrenaline rush over, warm tears escaped his burning eyes, surprising him – just not enough to force himself to lift his hands to dry them.

"EGON!"- Peter cried out throwing himself to the ground to hold his friend. He was alive. He didn't know why or how, but there he was, in his arms. Shaken, wounded, but alive.

The blond closed his eyes to reopen them when someone rubbed his aching face. It was Ray, trying to clean his cheecks with a handkerchief- "How are you? Where does it hurt?"- Ray's voice poured into Egon's ears and he could barely understand those words but he knew now he was safe. The anti-gravity muscles in his torso decided to stop working and he gave up, collapsing onwards into Peter's arms.

"I've called 911"- Winston said, kneeling behind the shocked man and covering his shoulders with a blanket he retrieved from their car. His words made Ray and Peter relax infinitesimally. Even if Egon did have some bad injuries under that hard exoskeleton he was wearing, they would be taken care of real fast.

Adjusting the blanket around him, Peter shifted him to lay more comfortably in his arms. His eyes were still closed, but he was breathing and a vein was pulsating strongly under the skin of his pale neck.- "Egon? Open your eyes. Look at me, ok?"

The three of them expectantly waited for him to move, give any sign he was ok enough to reassure them. Sirens approaching in the background, Egon's eyes opened to see the sky - "'m okay"- he uttered- "...'m okay.."


	3. Chapter 3

Janine hated to be left home waiting. The guys gone, she locked up the street door and speeded upstairs to retrieve her own jumpsuit and set of boots from the storage room. She wanted to be ready in case something happened. Placing on the carpet the spare pack she borrowed from the lab, she sat down on the couch with a cup of tea and turned the TV on.

Almost immediately she hit a channel broadcasting live from the area being evacuated. Journalists wouldn't stop even during a situation so dangerous, but it was all to her advantage.

"Slimeeer!"- she called- "Come here, they're gonna show us the guys!"

The ghost came out from a boot laying abandoned on the lounge's floor. Janine grimaced, wondering who the owner of that lucky boot was. Judging from the size it could have been Peter's. Or Winston's. "Come on, Slimer... you know nothing will happen to them..."

He just bobbed his head and hovered closer to the television. He didn't seem in the right mood to talk. Was he able to sense the demon's power?

She gave up trying to talk to him and focused on the broadcast. It was mostly a young male journalist – quite handsome too- giving information about what was the zone being blocked off by the army and interviewing the people being rushed out of the park.

It was rather boring, but she kept watching and watching. Then a loud explosion shook the camera. It wan't strong enough to be heard from the firehouse. She took it as a good sign.

She could barely relax when a loud thunder-like roar echoed in the distance. Jumping to her feet she grabbed the cordless phone from the coffee table and ran to the rooftop, just in time to see a red halo disperse in the sky. That was it. Right in that moment the guys could be dead. Or alive and on their way home.

Sighing, Janine sat down resting her forehead on her bent knees. Waiting for news was always the hardest part. Clutching the phone to her chest, she repressed her worry deep down for countless minutes.

" It's 'onna be okay Janine"- Slimer emerged from the floor and held one of her bent legs.

She started, not expecting to see the little ghost appear right in front of her. He also seemed to have decided to resume talking.

"Offcourse it's gonna be okay"- she patted his head, smiling. It was yucky but she didn't care much about dirtying her jumpsuit. She hoped she'd have time to change clothes if she ended up running anywhere to support the guys. If they were still alive. The smile trembled but she held on and kept the sides of her mouth curled up.

Slimer couldn't understand her struggle. He saw her smile and just smiled too: he had no motives to keep being gloomy if Janine was happy.

"I know someone who'd like a cookie"- the redhead winked, standing up. No point in waiting up there, she felt they'd have called. And she always trusted her intuitions about the guys.

Predictably, the spud squealed and splashed through the floor. She giggled and headed downstairs, tucking the phone in her back pocket.

* * *

Police escorted both the ambulance and Ecto to the nearest hospital, fending through the heavy traffic.

It would have taken hours to get the traffic moving again, but it was a small price to pay to protect the city from what could have been a disaster.  
The paramedics refused to allow any Ghostbuster to join Egon in the ambulance. Mostly because police preferred to have three available Ghostbusters instead of just two. Knowing Egon wasn't in critical conditions, the guys decided to be obedient and followed police's instructions without arguing.

"It seems to be gone"- Ray was scanning the PKE levels around them- "If he's to come back, we'll have some time to come out with a plan."

"How much time?"- Winston hoped Ray's words meant they'd have years to come up with a plan.

"A week, maybe two if we're lucky"- Ray massaged his forehead- "How's it going back there Peter?"

"Great."- the man was slumped on the back seat. He hadn't enjoyed being forced off the ambulance. Not one bit.

The ambulance in front of them stopped abruptly, making Winston curse and brake just in time- "Traffic's crazy...Seems like it's gonna take a while to get to the hospital."

"Oh, just great."- Peter's voice was as annoyed as it could get. He stretched his arms and laid down on the seat, his knees bent somewhat uncomfortably. He sat back up groaning.- "We need to call Big J."

"We should have her come over with a thrower and take watch turns with us."- the occultist started fidgeting with his own meter- "If Tolay plans to come back as soon as possible, PKE levels will rise again for a number of days, causing all sorts of spooks to.."

"...to come out and play with us."- Peter didn't sound happy at all.- "We're definitely gonna need an extra pair of hands."

Sun setting and Ecto's heating system dying on them made them notice it was gonna be a cold night. Sirens finally died out as they approached the hospital. The ambulance's doors opened and Ray was prompted to get out of the car and follow Egon to wherever they were taking him. Peter decided to stay and be the one to call their secretary. She was probably going crazy waiting.

Ecto was parked where police decided it to be, right into the hospital staff's parking zone. Once inside the building, they were lead to an isolated waiting room in the ward where Egon had been taken. The staff gave them warm drinks and blankets as they waited for the doctor to meet them.

The two Ghostbusters drank their disgusting but hot coffee, feeling instantly better. Lack of sleep, their close encounter with Tolay, their worry for their friend and the endless drive in the cold had taken a toll on their mental and physical strenght. "Let's call now before we fall asleep"- Winston suppressed a yawn- "I don't know how long I can keep going without sleeping.."

Peter wearily looked around, scanning the room and corridor for a payphone. He spotted one, searched his pockets for change. "Want to have a walk with me?"- he asked Winston pointing at the phone.

They stood up. A few steps and the payphone accepted Peter's coin, allowing him to dial their office's number.

A sleepy voice picked up the call- "Ghosbusters, whaddya want?"

The brown haired man chuckled. They weren't the only ones to be exhausted.

"Janine, hello. Had a nice nap?"- he asked, moving the receiver a bit to allow Winston to listen to the conversation too.

"PETER!"- her voice cleared as her brain got out of sleepy-mode in an instant- "How are you? What took you so long? Is everyone alright?"

"We're at some hosp..."- he started but was cut off.

"I know you're at the hospital!"- she yelled into the phone- "It's all over the news! Tell me something I don't already know!"

Winston covered his mouth to laugh without making any noise.

"Whoa, calm down young miss!"- Peter noticed Winston's gesture and stuck out his tongue at him- "Nobody's badly hurt."- he continued, switching to a serious tone- "Egon's being examined as we talk but I swear, he's fine. We're all fine. So calm down, ok?"

She heaved a huge sigh out of relief- "Can I come over? Or do you need me to stay here?"

"We'll ask police if they can come pick you up. We'll need one extra proton pack, as well as another person to handle it."- Peter tried to recall what Ray asked to retrieve from the lab. He failed.- "I can't remember what Ray said he needed, but I'll send a list."

A few more words and they hung up. Next task was to find Ray, get the list and talk to police, ask them to play taxi for them. Max priority. World's fate at stake. Just hurry up and go. A few minutes later, thanks to some well chosen sentences, the patrol car closest to the firehall was contacted.  
First thing going smoothly since morning.

* * *

Another hour passed and three Ghostbusters were slumped against each other on the waiting room's uncomfortable seats. The doctor that had examined Egon had taken a look at them too, confirming that they were fine, just tremendously tired. He had exhorted them to go home and get some sleep, but they wouldn't. They had to wait for Janine to arrive, receive from her some other tool Peter couldn't even remember the name of and run another scan of the PKE levels with it. On top of it all the doctor on duty wouldn't let any of them watch over Egon. Their equipment was too noisy, he said. Ray had a hunch that the good doctor was afraid they would collapse if they didn't take any sleep.

A nap in the waiting room was the best they could afford.

Just Winston couldn't surrender to sleep as yet, although he tried.

"Guys... hey guys.."- he shook them lightly.- "I can't stop wondering."

"And I wish I couldn't stop sleeping..."- the psychologist muttered.

"What do you think guys?"- the black man asked- "Egon should be toast right now. We all know it."

"A guardian angel?"- Ray proposed, keeping his eyes tightly shut. Light was definitely bothering him.

"You're not making sense..."- Peter replied, shifting position to ease his hurting back.

"I know."- Ray slurred, he was falling asleep again- "I just don't..."- He never got to finish that sentence cause sleep took over him.

* * *

It was past 11pm when Janine arrived to the hospital, armed to the teeth and escorted by two policemen that lead her to the waiting room where the trio was sleeping.

She noticed them and smiled. Thanking the two officers, she parted from them and carefully placed in front of Ray the backpack containing the tools he had requested. A PKE meter laid activated on the man's lap, beeping softly and not picking up any relevant activity.

"Are you a Ghostbuster too, Miss..?"- the whispering voice of a man made her turn.

It was a doctor, about her same height. Probably in his fifty. He was politely smiling at her.

"Melnitz. Janine Melnitz."- she offered her hand to shake and returned the smile- "I'm their secretary."

"It's a hard job to be a secretary nowadays."- he remarked, eyeing the heavy pack weighting on her lean shoulders. - "I'm Doctor Campbell, nice to meet you."

'_And pay sucks._'- she kept that thought for herself and just smiled. Then asked: "Is Dr. Spengler alright?"

The doctor gestured her to follow him into a nearby room, right across from where the men were sleeping. She followed him in silence.

Inside the faintly lit room, a familiar man was sleeping. Janine pressed her hand on her mouth- "Oh God..."

His face – still darkened on one cheek by the old bruise now fading to yellow- carried other small fresh wounds. Same went for his hands, all bandaged up. She figured out he probably had been hit by debris during the second explosion, the really loud one.

"Apart from those superficial abrasions and... and a strain of the left triceps brachii, he is doing well."- the doctor read the medical chart hanging from the bed- "The protections he was wearing really preserved his body from greater damage."

Janine dared to breath again, removing her hand from her mouth. Her voice was still alarmed- "So... is he just sleeping?"

"He was in a deep state of psychological shock when the paramedics first succorred him. We decided to admininster him a sedative and he will most likely be sleeping through tomorrow."- Doctor Campbell had a feeling that the woman's worry was not just simple worry of an employee. She also seemed a lot more calm and rested than his patient's colleagues. It couldn't hurt to let her stay- "If you wish to spend the night here, you can use that chair."- he gestured towards a reclining chair at the side of the bed.

"If it is possible I'd like to be on guard the whole night."- she nodded, never taking her eyes off her sleeping boyfriend.

The Doctor agreed and bid her goodnight. Exiting the room, he closed the door as he went.

Calling a nurse, he asked to set up an empty room to accomodate the three stubborn men that wouldn't move from the waiting room.

* * *

Waking up made Egon discover a whole new level of being sore. On a positive note, his medicine-induced sleep gave his shaking system a break, letting him rest properly. He had been on the verge of waking up many times, but that was the first time he was really awake.

Yawning was not a good idea. Lifting his left arm to shield his mouth as he yawned was even a worse one. He let out a frustrated groan, letting his hand fall back on the mattress.

"Life's hard, huh?"

Only then Egon got aware of Peter sitting by his bed, munching on a banana.

"Could be harder..."- the physicist replied, daring to move to massage his temples- "How long have I been sleeping?"

"More or less 20 hours."- the brown-haired man stretched his free arm. They finally could benefit from 8 hours of good sleep, then let a very sleepy Janine go home and had taken turns in Egon's room to watch over him with a powered up meter.  
Peter came to think that she probably already was on her way back to the hospital together with the guys. - "How are you?"

"I'm surprised to be alive."- Egon admitted- "I'm sore, but I realize I am lucky to be just sore. I assume I managed to close the portal?"- he asked, trying again to move, wriggling carefully his fingers, checking if his joints moved fine.

"Don't ever do something that rushed again."- Peter's voice hardened- "I don't know what happened, but you should be dead right now." - the peel of the banana was thrown into the trashbin and landed with a muffled sound.

Egon couldn't tell him that it had been his B-plan all along. He sat up carefully- "I did not have many choices."

Peter knew they didn't have any other options, as they were trapped and unable to help at all. He had hated every second of it. - "The others are on their way here to pick us up. Just... let's not talk about this now. Try to rest as much as you can."

"Ray and I need to analyze the recordings of our encounter with Tolay as soon as we get home."- Egon felt suddenly even more tired- "Then we have to replace the pack we lost and..."

"And nothing. You gonna do nothing when you get home, buster."- Janine stepped in the room holding a plastic bag in her arms. Just as Ray and Winston previously had, she too had taken the chance to go home, get a good shower and change to her street clothes. - "Well maybe you can eat and sleep, but that's it for today."

Peter smiled hearing Egon moan- "Do you also have my change of clothes into that bag or poor me doesn't get nothing?"

"Yeah, everything's in here.."- she placed the bag on the nightstand, then sat on the bed and opened her purse, extracting a pair of red framed glasses. One lense was badly scratched.- "Found these at my place. You think they can do till you manage to get a new pair?"

"Oh. I didn't think I had any more pairs left."- Egon accepted the glasses and wore them. World was in HD again.- "Thank you Janine."- he smiled at her, then frowned- "Where did you find..."- his eyes caught a glimpse of Peter's mouth curling up in one of his grins- "...I guess I don't need to know, do I?"

"Let him imagine all the pervert stuff he likes to."- She stood and walked to the door- "Get ready you two, I wanna go home already."

"You know it's the right woman when she makes you forget about your glasses."- Peter barely could hold back a good laugh. Egon rolled his eyes and groaned, but couldn't completely hide an amused smile.

* * *

Janine never let Egon out of her sight once he was out of his room. She stood beside him as he signed discharge papers, sat by him in Ecto. She had an arm around his waist as they reached the firehall's bedroom.

"I promise I won't try to run away the moment you let go."- he said once he was sitting on his bed and she hesitated letting his hand go. Her expression was so serious that his words couldn't cut through and make her smile.

She released his hand and gestured him to lay down, then she blurted out her thoughts- "I'm gonna be there holding a thrower the next time that bastard decides to come back and try to kill you."

His eyes shadowed a bit and she regretted speaking those words. She didn't need to go there so soon. Kinda hoping Peter would jump out from under a bed and lighten the mood with some of his smartass remaks, she uneasily glanced around the room. No one was around, the guys had decided to leave them some private time.

The physicist propped himself up with a couple of pillows and patted the bed to prompt her to sit down. She obeyed, feeling a lump forming in her throat.

"I'm glad you didnt come with us."- he caressed her hair with his right hand. Left arm still hurt too much to be moved around freely. - "He could have killed you in a second and we could have done nothing to..."

Silence fell on them. He was hating to admit being powerless as well as she hated to admit he was right. She reacted first, standing up - "Imma get you a blanket, you try and sleep some before dinner is ready."

He didn't object and watched her as she walked away from the bed to retrieve a clean blanket. She got back and spread it over his legs.- "I better go now, so you can rest."- She bit her bottom lip, feeling uneasy.

"Hey..."- Egon sat up to grab her hand- "... come here.."- he pulled her gently and she didn't put up resistance to his pulling, sitting once again on the bed as he laid down.

Finally she looked at him again and dared to smile. He smiled back and pulled some more, silently inviting her to lay down with him.

Janine carefully avoided weighting on the left side of his body- she didn't want to risk hurting his arm- and ended up curling up against his right side, sliding her legs under the blanket and her head resting on his shoulder. She passed an arm around his chest and closed her eyes. Feeling his good arm coming around her, she gave in to sleep.

"Should we wake 'em up and tell 'em dinner's ready?"- Winston was the first to poke his head from the doorway, about half an hour later. The couple was still peacefully naping on the corner bed.

"Aren't those two just cute?"- Ray commented shortly after, standing next to his taller friend.

"Cuteness level exceeded"- Peter rustled in his nightstand, taking out a polaroid and snapping a couple of pics- "There. My laundry's gonna be taken care of by someone _else_ for at least two weeks."

* * *

"How are you do today?"

Egon lifted his head from the working table to look at Ray.- "I'm fine today, thank you."- he smiled and set aside the sewing kit he was using. Repairing the exoskeleton suit was being a harder task than he could imagine, mostly because his arm was giving him hell and he couldn't focus enough on the many small cuts in between the hard plates of the suit itself.

Ray sat down next to him, smiling back- "Glad to hear that. Having any luck with that suit?"- he opened up a notebook where he and Egon had been keeping track of the city's PKE levels.

"I'm almost done... although it's taking its toll on my eyes."- the physicist secretly wished they could use a sewing machine to repair the suit. A powered up one.- "I've been working on the data from two days ago."

Ray started reading the latest pages of the notebook- "Uhm..."- he flipped back and forth through the very last two pages three or four times- "...are you sure this is correct, Egon? This is... we've never seen something like this..."- he turned to open a cabinet. He searched for a specific file, but couldn't find it- "Where's..."

"Gozer's file is here."- Egon had guessed what his younger friend was looking for. Earlier that morning, when he had run the preliminar analysis on the data, that file had been the first thing he had wanted to check.

The folder was taken and opened up by a frowning occultist. He skimmed through it- "This is not making sense. 48 hours after Gozer's defeat, PKE levels were real close to zero."- he glanced at the other data- "Right now we're still three points over zero."

"I only have two explanations for this phenomenon."- Egon decided he wasn't in the mood anymore to play taylor and started tidying up the table.- "Either Tolay has become more powerful than Gozer, or our data is faulted. Which could depend by equipment being biased by the destabilized portal's energy field biasing the detectoring devices."

"We should head back to Central Park and scan for any residuals. It could help us understand if a malfunction occurred at the time."- Ray jumped up from his seat at once. "And we need to do it quickly."

The blond stood up too, a tad more slowly than usual. He still felt tired and knew he had to save energy as much as he could to be able to keep up with his companions. Ray didn't miss it and his face switched from 'worried' to 'super-worried'. - "Egon."

"Yes, Raymond?"- the other man asked, looking at him.

"You sure you're up to this?"- the smaller man knew he was not only physically tired: he had gone through a strong psychological shock too. It wasn't right to make him run straight back to where he...

"Do I have a choice?"- Egon's voice stopped Ray's line of thought. There was no other way to act. They needed to be both there and run any test they could. They needed each other's expertise.

Then Ray's mind got on another track of thinking. He mentally slapped himself for forgetting such an important detail- "Do you recall what happened, by the way? How did you manage to avoid that blast?"

Egon tried not to flinch at the thought, a shiver running up and down his back- "I didn't avoid it."

He was not making any sense. Ray wondered if he even remembered what had happened at all. His puzzled look made Egon amend his statement- "Actually, someone – or something – shielded me when I was about to be hit."- he scratched his chin- "I cannot recall much of what happened, but I'm positive a woman interposed herself between myself and the stream."

"A woman?"- Ray echoed- "You mean... another demon? A ghost?"

"I frankly don't know." - the taller man made an apologetic gesture. - "I believe she managed to block or absorb the power of Tolay's energy. I have no other explanation."

It took a really short time for Ray to connect Egon's words to their need to come up with a plan against Tolay.- "I know!"- the auburn aired man reverted to a self more similar to the usual. His eyes gleaming, he snapped his fingers- "We need to find her! She must be at least as powerful as Tolay if she succeeded in blocking him off! And she's obviously on our side!"

Egon sighed- "I'm sure you do realize the danger of stipulating contracts with demons, given that she really is on our side. And not following her own agenda."

"Do I have a choice?"- Ray quoted Egon's word from a couple of minutes earlier; just his face openly showed he was totally thrilled with the idea.

Sadly that was the only hint they had to solve the problem, meaning they'd have to try and contact the mysterious entity. Hoping not to end up with two powerful demons hot for their blood instead of just one.

* * *

Going to Central Park revealed to be completely useless. No useful lingering residuals to help them solve their doubts. No trace of another demon or other portals. Just countless readings of minor entities and human byorhythm residuals. They decided to split and search the area throughfully.

After a good hour of walking in the cold, Peter got fed up. Weather wasn't really helping. Was it going to snow anytime soon? The sky was dark with clouds and a fastidious cold breeze sweeped through the trees. He decided it was time for a time out and slumped on a stone bench. A damn cold stone bench. But sitting down felt good and he ignored the unpleasant feeling of his butt freezing.

He leaned onwards, resting his elbows on his knees and taking his face in his hands. Darkness felt nice, his muscles eased up as he relaxed.

His vision being blocked off, he could focus on the gentle chirping of birds. A fountain was murmuring a few feet away. Then a strange sensation made his neck stiffen. He was being watched. He didn't move, keeping his breathing steady. He didn't want to give away the fact he knew he was being observed.

Scherming the sounds of nature around him, he was sure he heard someone breathing in front of him. Fabric was lightly swishing in the breeze. He trusted his senses, finely tuned by years of ghostbusting. Someone was definitely there. Now he had to discover who that someone was. Something kept not feeling right. Was it the woman of mystery Ray and Egon told him about?

Peter decided to act and abruptly lifted his face from his hands, looking right in front of him.

* * *

Winston crouched. He just found a penny, but still no useful readings. He sighed, standing up and massaging his stiff shoulders. Why was it getting so cold right when they needed to run around Central Park. Just their luck. Checking his wristwatch he felt happy seeing that it was almost 5pm. Half an hour and they'd be meeting up around Ecto. Possibly to go grab a hot coffee.

"Better start getting back, I wanna be there on time."- he said aloud to himself.

That area of the park was still closed off from the public, on their request. They wanted to be sure there wouldn't be another interdimensional passage opening in the same spot.

People gone, Winston could appreciate the little, somewhat quiet, noises of the park. A cold breeze was making trees and bushes moving softly. It seemed all so peacefu-

A yell made him jump. No doubt, it was Peter's voice.

Winston madly ran in the general direction he heard the yell come from. He wasn't too far from where Peter was. As he went, he picked up the walkie talkie from his belt and called Ray and Egon for backup.

"PETER!"- he bellowed when the pshycologist appeared in his visive field- "What happened? You alright?"

The man was sitting on a stone bench, still upset from whatever had happened.

"Did you see her?"- Peter stood up and ran to meet his friend.

"... her?"- Winston echoed, he was a bit lost.

"The ghost! The ghost Ray and Egon were talking about!"- Peter almost yelled, he had got a good fright. He turned to face the bench and looked around as if he expected her to pop out again soon.

"Sorry man, but I'm not picking up anything..."- Winston glanced at his meter.

More footsteps made them both turn around.

"This is interesting."- Egon commented, his eyes glued to a meter he and Ray had powered up.- "Are you sure you saw her, Peter?"

"She was stalking me!"- he yelled. He had just been had by some ghost looking like a teenage. Thinking back about it, she must have been following him for a while. Making noises he had mistakenly blamed on the wind.

"I'm picking up an interesting residual."- the blond stated, then asked Ray to help him tune the meter. The occultist drew out a small screwdriver and started working.

Winston wondered what kind of mad engineering had been going on on the poor innocent meter.

They all waited for the meter to be ready. Peter and Winston took guard as their two colleagues were busy with the device. So busy they wouldn't have noticed a Boeing-747 crashing straight on them.

"These readings are unusual. Maybe it isn't a ghost afterall. I'm not sure but..."- Egon finally resumed speaking, to be cut off by the noise of a thrower being activated and the cackle of a low powered stream being shot. A branch fell to the ground, carrying something else with it.

"Over there!"- Winston shouted, running to where a black lump had fallen from a nearby tree and into the bushes.

"W..What's wrong with you!"- Peter cried, hot on his heels.

"So, here is your ghost Peter."- Winston grinned, taking out of the bushes a kicking person clad in a black hooded cloak.

"...It's most likely a human being."- Egon finished his sentence, evidently oblivious to what was going on. He realized he was alone and walked up to join them.

"I'm not a ghost! I'm human!"- the prisoner trying to break free angrily replied to the man holding her arms twisted behind her back. She was as tall as the man holding her, her voice hinting that she could have been anywhere between her teens and early twenties.

"Hey, I'm trying not to hurt you, but you ain't helping here!"- Winston said- "Just stay still, we need want to ask you a few things."

She stopped moving. Her slim arms were no match to the man's strong ones. No point in fighting back.

"That's better. Now, promise you won't run if we free your arms."- Peter commanded, trying to take a glimpse of her eyes. She was keeping her head down and the hood prevented them from seeing her face.

"Just great."- she huffed, then something on her started beeping madly. - "Let me go and run!"- she cried, her voice sounding scared.- "He's here! He must've followed me!"

The men didn't have time to ask questions because a few seconds later Egon's meter came to life too, signaling the sudden presence of an unexpected guest.

They all turned to the direction where the familiar form had appeared out of the blue. A small portal was open about 50 feet above them. How had Tolay managed to get there undetected?

Winston let her go at once, pushing her away- "Whatever you are, run!"

She straightened her back and smiled a smile they felt was familiar, took off the hood of her cloak and ran a few meters to interpose herself between them and Tolay. Her head was protected by a black balaclava, making the guys wonder what could be the use of it on such an occasion.- "I'm not afraid of this bastard!"- she yelled looking straight at the demon.

"Shit, she's gonna get herself killed."- Peter hissed as they all powered up. They needed to save that girl. Also they needed a chance to fire at the portal. - "Get behind me Big Guy. No running off for you too."

Egon discarded the joke and obeyed, his meter still scanning the area and still unable to locate the interdimensional passage. That girl had on herself a detector much more powerful. How could it be?

"You really are a good girl..."- Tolay teased her- "...Came to save the day. You know any attempt to stop me is futile.."

"Shut the hell up and die!"- she screamed, extracting what looked like a semiautomatic gun from under her cloak and shooting a sequence of blue streams. She moved fast, but she was no match to the demon, who charged up and counterattacked with a well aimed blast of energy.

It happened again: a white light absorbed the hit, though something went wrong and the backlash sent her flying several meters away, past the Ghostbusters and into the greenery.

It was their chance. To Egon's well-timed yelled orders the men aimed for the portal, crossing the streams in a desperate attempt to close it.

"You have to thank that bitch if you're still alive!"- Tolay screeched as he was being unmercifully sucked in by the portal- "Now that she's out of the game, you will all die!"

His voice was so powerful it echoed over the explosion signaling that the inter-dimensional rip sealed.

When it was over, they exchanged one fast satisfied look before running to where the girl had landed.

"There she is!"- Ray spotted her lying curled up on one side. He checked her vitals: she was breathing, but unconscious.

"Hey, girl!"- Peter came second, shaking her up lightly- "Wake up!"

"...my ass..."- she moaned, coming to her senses. The ski mask was ripped up in a spot at the back of her head, revealing dark brown hair tied up in a chignon. With a little help she managed to sit up, rubbing her sore bottom.

"Suit?"- Egon asked, kneeling down and inspecting her calf. The ruined fabric of her pants revealed she was wearing an exoskeleton pretty similar to their ones.

The girl moved fast and kneeled, covering her legs with the remains of the cloak. The holes in the balaclava let them see her green eyes veil with worry and her lips being tortured by her own teeth- "This suit's mine. I made it."

Seeing how puzzled they looked, she decided to take the chance and try to run away. Just, even if protected by her exoskeleton, her body suffered a bad hit and her legs didn't respond well to the sudden movement. Falling backwards into Winston's arms, she groaned, feeling sick.

"We're taking you home."- Winston said, lifting her up from the ground.

Their voices and the nice sensation of being carried by him were the last things she was aware of before losing consciousness again.


	4. Chapter 4

Janine sat down at the dining table, joining the Ghostbusters.- "She's still sleeping."

She poured herself a cup of coffee, feeling tired. She had insisted on washing the girl and dressing the little wounds on her hands. Then she had dressed her up in clean clothes and had left her on Ray's bed. The girl had never waken up at all through it. - "I left her mask on, as you guys asked."

"We should examine her equipment. She has a proton GUN!"- Ray absolutely wanted to know how that thing worked. He was aching to know. Sadly all of the girl's belongings had been carefully stored away into a cardboard box, resting next to the couch.

"We shouldn't examine her equipment, Ray."- Egon sternly replied. Deep inside he died to know how the girl's meter worked.- "Her biorythms carry a wave modification typical of time travel, although the wave itself has a peculiar shape."

The gurgle of the pot boiling on the stove filled the room as everyone got silent, mulling over all the possible options.

"So, let's get this straight: this teen from somewhere in the future decides to steal a couple of traps, shortcircuit them and come try her toys on the most powerful demon ever appeared."- Peter was hungry and wasn't in the mood of data-analyzing. The smell of their dinner being cooked was getting too strong to ignore it.

"Don't forget she also stole one of your future jumpsuits on her way here"- Janine showed him the printed label on the inside of the dirty and torn grey jumpsuit the girl had been wearing earlier. The Ghostbuster's logo was still visible on the sleeve, although badly damaged.

Peter grabbed the jumpsuit and peroused it. It was nothing out of ordinary. Just like the one he was still wearing, different color. It maybe felt lighter, probably the fabric was different. Would be plausible if the girl indeed came from the future.

They heard a rustle coming from upstairs. "She's awake."- Janine whispered. They all fell silent again. Footsteps lightly thudded on the flooring.

"Gonna escape through the roof?"- Peter wondered keeping his voice low, cupping a hand around his ear.

Then the noise of water running through the pipes cleared any doubt: their guest was in the bathroom.

"Well, she's been sleeping for hours.."- Ray joined the whispering.

Egon was just taken up by the jumpsuit to pay attention.

"Guys..."- Winston turned off the stove and joined them- "Why the heck are we whispering?"

"So she can't hear us talking about her."- Peter crossed his arms, not realizing they had been talking about her all along. In pretty loud voices too.

Janine sighed and rested her forehead on the table- "I need a drink."

"This kind of acrilic fiber has not yet been invented. Fascinating."- Egon commented, raising his head and noticing the strange atmosphere- "What happened?"

"Nothing, just keep analyzing." - the secretary waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. She felt the need of a good drink, alone in front of the television. Possibly in company of a huge bowl of ice cream.

"Food's ready."- Winston announced after one last tasting of the rice. His message was short and clear. Guided by hunger, everyone stood up and helped setting the table. As the others took care of the table, the cook walked to the staircase leading to the third floor and yelled- "DINNER TIME!"

A faint 'coming!' was yelled back from behind the bathroom door.

Winston smiled and got back to the kitchen.

He had held her in his arms the whole trip home and had felt her shivering from exhaustion. She even had whispered 'mama' a few times in her restless sleep. She really wasn't the heroine she probably wanted to appear to be. And he was curious to know what had made her decide to face that dangerous mission alone.

When the girl walked into the dining room she didn't have her ski mask on. Her hair wasn't tied anymore: soft brown waves reached just past her shoulders, framing her cute face. A big plaster covered her cheek, a smaller one was on her jawline, yet another on the chin.

Janine just knew it would have been best to get rid of the mask immediately and clean her face too. This thought made her shoot a dark look at the men.

The girl didn't miss that exchange and grinned- "It's okay. It's just a few scratches anyways."

"How are you feeling, sweetie?"- Janine asked, gesturing for her to sit down.

The girl sat down and was about to reply when her stomach growled loudly. She slumped her shoulders and let go an embarrassed laughter- "I am positively hungry."

They shared a good laugh and started digging their food: any discussion about her could wait till after dinner.

* * *

"It was delicious."- the girl smiled satisfied and slid down the chair a bit, patting her full belly.

The others looked at the pile of plates in front of her. She ended up eating two servings of rice, three peanut butter sandwiches and a slice of a dangerous-looking cake that had been sitting in the fridge for maybe too long. She claimed it was delicious, they believed her without trying.

"How long have you been without eating, dear?"- Janine asked once the brown haired girl was done eating. She had looked so focused as she ate that no one had wanted to disturb her.

"How long has it been since Tolay tried to blast you?"- the girl asked Egon, who was sipping his coffee, still lost in his theories. The word 'Tolay' captured his attention enough for him to be able to reply to the question being asked.- "Thirty-eight hours."

"Then I haven't been eating for almost four days."- she replied. Her face became of a bright red- "I was so worked up about time-travelling that I forgot my wallet."

"You didn't get here by chance."- Egon stated, looking at her. Unseen, he had been silently observing her and perousing her features all along- "How did you manage to time-travel to that exact day and time?"

"Tolay was enough of a fool to tell me what he was going to do."- her face became serious, making her look much older- "I syncronized the traps' potential to his time travelling spell."

The physicist just stared at her blankly. The solution was so simple, yet so...

"That's genial."- he simply said, then he sternly looked at her- "Yet it was potentially deadly. That sure was reckless of you."

She lowered her eyes at the scolding- "Yeah... I kinda knew I had a high risk of landing right in some dimension other than the correct one."- raising her face again she made a resigned face- "But if I hadn't risked, I'd be dead anyways by now. He'd have killed you all and I'd have disappeared."

It didn't take a rocket scientist to get what her words meant. They exchanged uneasy looks, making her nervous. She gnawed her bottom lip.

"Five days ago he killed my father. Then just laughed saying I was a tough one. Said he'd have eliminated the root of the problem."- she tried to keep her voice steady, but the pain was just too much, too recent.- "I want to destroy that bastard with these hands."

Those hands were shaking. Winston grabbed them and patted her head- "Let's not talk about this right now. You need to rest."

She nodded. Freeing her hands, she threw her arms around his neck and just held on to him. He exchanged worried looks with the other as he held her back. She was scared, and in pain. The girl sobbed quietly for a while, then her breath became regular. Feeling her weight pressing harder on him, Winston whispered- "I think she's asleep again."

"Poor thing... it was a hard week for her."- Ray broke his silence. He seemed on verge of crying too.

"I'll take her upstairs."- Winston shifted her in his arms to carry her.- "Will be right back."

* * *

They waited for him to be back.

Janine moved her chair closer to Egon's and leaned on him. He held her in silence. The sorrow hanging in the air was so thick to be almost unbearable.

Peter stood up to go get some beers. He got back into the dining room and placed five bottles plus a bottle opener on the table- "We'll need this. I sure do."- he opened his and drank, sitting back down. He caught a glimpse of the discarded jumpsuit from the future and flinched.

"Who wants to share half?"- Egon asked. He needed to be sober to think. He didn't need to be completely sober right now though. Janine shook her head. She didn't feel like drinking anymore. She felt like throwing up; pressing a hand on her stomach didn't ease the sensation neither made it worse.

"Drink some, I'll drink the leftover."- Ray pinched his own arm from under the table. No time to feel bad for her, they needed to work it out.

"I'd need a JD to be honest."- Winston moaned from the door, noticing the beers. It took him a few minutes to take the exhausted girl to the bedroom and tuck her in his bed - but it felt like years.

"It'd be on the table if we had any."- Peter groaned looking at his bottle- "I just got to know I'm gonna die in front of my daughter's eyes. Happy times."

"You think she's your daughter?"- Ray fidgeted with the bottle opener.- "Her face does have familiar features.."

"Read carefully."- the brown haired man stood to grab the jumpsuit from where it laid on the handrail of the stairs and walked back to the table, showing him the label sewn to the inner collar.

"It reads 'Venkman'."- Ray stretched the fabric- "Oh, wait.. there's something else... it's ripped right...right here... if I join the parts..."- fidgeting a bit he put together the little puzzle- "E. Venkman."

"So, Tolay didn't bother us until some point in the future when something happened."- Winston thoughtfully sipped his drink- "Then she does something that really pissed him off, her father gets in the way and is killed."

"What could have she done to become Tolay's main target?"- Janine wondered.- "How old can she be? She can't be older than 14 or 15."

"Your man did a lot of damage too when he was about that age "- Peter teased her, reaching for another bottle.

"But he only started to play with demons after he reached legal age."- she stuck out her tongue, then remembered about her man being too silent for too long. She raised her face to look at him- "What's going on into that head of yours, Egon?"

He quit playing with the condensation derived drops on the bottle that was now in front of Ray and looked at her- "Nothing."  
He wasn't convinced at all by E.'s story. He was sure she was hiding something. Something big. He didn't want to throw oil on the fire as yet.

The look Janine put on was a particularly amusing one, a weird mix of annoyance and resignation. The other three men looked at each other and chuckled .

"Let's call it a night."- Winston was trying to stop smiling.

"I'll borrow your couch guys."- Janine stood up and stirred- "Early in the morning we should meet up and have her tell us the whole story."

"You can use my bed, I'll take the couch.."- Egon emerged from his deep-in-thought state- "I don't mind."

"I mind. You need to be resting decently."- she replied- "Now, gentlemen..."- she hinted a bow- "...bathroom is mine."

Janine gone, Peter sighed: he wondered if he'd end up peeing in a bottle.

"Guys.."- Winston leaned forward on the table gesturing them to get closer. They all copied him. He then whispered- "That girl asked to meet up in the lab. Just the five of us."

"I wonder why she'd want Janine out of the way..."- Ray breathed, glancing at the staircase.

"I might have a theory about that."- Egon followed Ray's glance- "Let's hear her out."

* * *

They acted as if all was normal. No secret plots going on, no sir. Everyone patiently waited for their bathroom turn, prepared for the night, got in bed. Lights off, they waited for lights to be off downstairs too. A good hour passed, then, when she thought it was safe, the girl sat up- "Anyone asleep?"

Ray lit up his torch- "Ready. Peter?"- he shone the light on Peter.

"Yeah, yeah... I'm awake..."- the man moaned, rubbing his eyes.- "Spengs?"

He was answered by a soft snore.

"Let's wake him up and get to the lab."- Winston suggested from his makeshift bed, sliding into his slippers.

Four sleepy men and the teenager soon found themselves locked into the lab. A couple of desk lamps were lit to have enough light but not so much to be seen from outside the door.

"Hit us."- Peter liked the situation less and less. A daughter from the future was unsettling. Egon refusing to freely babble about his theories made him really upset.

"I.. where should I start from..."- She sat on the table. Her pale body appeared even leaner now that she was clad in an oversized football shirt. Her bare legs dangled down.

"So..uhm.. what's your name?"- Ray asked sitting on a stool nearby- "Or rather, how should we call you?"

"You probably know my initials by now."- she looked at her knees, grabbing the edge of the table with her hands- "For the time being, call me E.V.. I'll try to remember to respond to this name."- she giggled sowfly.

"Evie, why you asked to meet us like this?"- Egon decided to start testing his theory.

"She totally wouldn't like my story. I don't know much about her current personality, but the Janine I know would have a nervous breakdown."- Evie nodded. She felt strangely lighthearted.- "You already guessed what's my story. Didn't you?"

Egon frowned- "I have my own thoughts about it. I might be completely offtrack, having so little clues."

"I don't have any thoughts about it, can we poor mortals know the truth?"- the psychologist was feeling impatient.

"I'll just tell you my story."- her mouth became a line as she made a resolute expression- "One day, Tolay gathered up enough strenght to go get his revenge on him"- she nodded towards Egon- "A huge portal opened up in Central Park. You lived through it, so you know about that. Just, his enemy survived. Without my help offcourse. Luck had a lot to do with it when it originally happened."

A few words and they were all hooked up in thoughtful silence. She continued:

"Months passed and Egon finally got discharged from the hospital. In the meanwhile Ray had found a way to power the destabilizer up enough to quickly defeat Tolay if he ever came again. And he did come again. It happened here, in the firehouse.  
He materialized right over Ecto one day you all were cleaning up the garage. There wasn't much left of it after he landed on it, Dad told me."- she was offered a paper cup full of water and gladly accepted, drinking a bit.- "Janine didn't have much time to react, she was working at her desk."

They held their breath. Ray got the mental image of them being a bunch of kids on camping being scared by horror tales. She said she knew Janine, so she must have survived someway.

"That's where I die."- Egon calmly said. Up to that point, more or less, he had followed the right thinking path.

"Exactly."- she raised her thumb- "You dived and got her out of the way. Getting yourself gutted."- her eyes darkened.- "She lost consciousness and that monster thought she was dead. When she woke up, hours later, the body count had risen to two."

"She wouldn't have liked this bit of the story."- Winston commented, gnawling his paper cup- "I already hate it."

"You can't help doing that, can you?"- Evie asked, finding the strenght to smile.

"That?..."- Winston got aware of how he was torturing the cup and stopped. Then he realized the deeper meaning behind her comment.- "Oh."

"Oh God. I die next."- the occultist gasped- "How do I die?"

"You died destabilizing the portal."- she looked at him- "Tolay has that bad habit of trying to kill you even while being sucked in."

"Damn..."- Ray hung his shoulders- ".. he really got me..."

Evie smiled sadly at the occultist's reaction - "Winston tried to get you off the way but only succeeded in getting caught in the blast. His leg was damaged so bad I've never seen him run."

"What's my role in all of this?"- Peter wanted to know why he hadn't been mentioned at all.

"The moment you saw Egon in a puddle of blood, you ran to him."- she stopped dangling her legs- "He was still alive, could barely say a few words before dying. Winston told me you were so shocked you risked dying yourself, you could barely breathe, let alone move. Ray yelled you to run to the basement and get Janine out of there. You obeyed like a puppet. Didn't question, just ran with her in your arms. Winston is sure Ray saved your life back then."

Peter couldn't believe he would just flee the scene. He stayed silent. Everyone was silent. Evie's way of telling the story- so simple, so violent and vivid- and the contents of the story itself shocked them.  
She bit her lip, glancing nervously to each of them- "What? I said something wrong?"

Egon had even fewer doubts about Evie's family background and covered his mouth with his hand, chuckling.

"What's so fun?"- Peter, ticked off, asked him.

"You still can't see it, Peter?"- the blond replied, pointing at Evie.

On her part, Evie had no idea what was going on and kept torturing her bottom lip, feeling the perousing glances of the men on her.

"See what?"- Peter barely remember not to yell.

Egon bit his bottom lip, cocking one eyebrow to give him a hint.

The brown haired man widened his eyes in shock. No way. He walked up to Evie and looked more closely. "No way..."- he stepped back- "... No way. Absolutely no way."

"Evie, by any chance..."- Winston was good at riddles. He had finally understood why Egon hadn't shared his theory earlier at the dining table.

"I said NO WAY!"- The more Peter repeated those words, the less he believed in them.  
Evie was nothing more than a taller Janine. With wrongly coloured eyes and hair.

"I don't understand what's going on!"- she cried, covering her face with her hands.

"Now you tell me your mother's name."- Peter grabbed her shoulders and looked at her straight in the eyes. She could be lying. It could be a coincidence. No one in his family had such facial features and light bones, nor such a fair complexion. He could maybe have ended up with a woman looking like Janine. No, that sounded even more perverted.

Evie dared to open the fingers a bit, glancing through them as if she was watching a really scary movie on tv- "Melnitz. Janine Melnitz."

Peter lost all strenght in his body and dragged himself to the closest spot of free wall, sliding down to the floor and curling up, resting his head on his knees. His head suddenly hurt.

"I...I'm sorry..."- Evie's voice broke again. She stepped off the table and kneeled in front of him- "I'm sorry... I was born."- she finally admitted a thought she'd been thinking for years.

Peter's head darted up- "What are you trying to say?"- he didn't like the idea of him and the redhead having a kid, but seeing that girl being sorry to exist was simply horrible.

"I was always been trouble.."- she sobbed- "I've always been a reminder of that day. My mother's eyes get sad everytime she looks at me. My father raised me knowing she'd keep imagining how things would have gone if Egon hadn't died that day. I tried my best, but I never could make that sad expression get off their faces."- she looked down- "I can disappear if I know I'll make things right for them."

His body moved on its own, pulling her close and holding her tight- "Don't ever say such things again."- he felt like crying himself. He'd just been vomited on years of silent suffering, they all hit him like an upper cut- "I'm not gonna let you disappear. Even if I'd have to mess up the time-continuum. We'll be together and I'll do my best this time too."- he pushed her away the little bit necessary to wipe her tears and hold her face- "And if you'll mess up... well, we all screw up sometimes."

She smiled, tears still rolling down her cheeks. She had to time travel to hear those words she'd been aching to hear since forever. He copied her smile and held her again, hiding his face in her wavy hair, breathing her familiar scent as his friends silently walked out of the lab, leaving them to their moment.

* * *

Janine had a feel those guys were up to something. She turned off the light and laid still for a while, her ears ready to pick up any noise coming from the third floor.  
She was about to fall asleep, when she clearly heard them move. Judging by the noise, they had walked to the lab. She grabbed the glass she had put on the coffee table along with a bottle of water and scooted up the stairs when she heard the door closing.

She waited a bit, clutching the glass to her chest as if it was a weapon. Faint light filtered from under the lab's door. What were they hiding?  
The stockings she still wore let her slide silently from the stairs to the lab. She glanced around. No movements. Voices could be faintly heard from behind the door.  
She kneeled on the floor, placing the glass on the door. She rested her ear against the bottom of the glass.

It was hard not to utter a sound as Evie's past unfolded.

She could not hear all of it. Ray and Egon were so far from the door she could barely detect their voices. Then something changed in the general mood of the room, the girl sounded scared.

"_Now you tell me your mother's name._"- Peter's voice rose, he sure was upset.

Evie took a couple of moments before replying, then her voice clearly stated: "_Melnitz. Janine Melnitz._"

The redhead couldn't take any more of it. Someone moved, making a chair screech.

She decided it was best to retreat to the second floor and scurried off to the safety of the couch.

It couldn't be. It had to be a mistake. No way she would have sex with him, given any possible emotional trauma. She couldn't do it even if traumatized AND drunk. No way. Not a single chance.

She tried to suffocate the whirlwind of thoughts going on in her brain by hiding her head under the pillow and commanding herself to sleep.

She didn't solve the problem but managed to fall asleep, having a weird dream about Dr V. seducing her and ending up having about twenty kids, all named Peter Jr.

* * *

Waking up wasn't less traumatizing than falling asleep for the secretary. Why Slimer had decided to sleep on her folded clothes she had no idea. She didn't even yell at him. Just took her stuff to the laundry machine. Eyeing her wristwatch, she noticed it was 5am. A coffee was called for.

She dug up Egon's pink shirt from the clean laundry sitting forgotten in the dryer, put it on, checked that it was long enough to cover her butt and wearily got to the kitchen.

"Nice shirt, sister."- Peter was sitting at the dining table, chugging coffee. He didn't look like he had much sleep himself. To her lack of response – she stood rather petrified in front of him, all the memories from the night just got violently back in her mind – he went to retrieve another mug and poured some coffee in it- "Come have a cuppa, you look like you need it badly."

She eyed him suspiciously and slid on the chair right across the table from him. Drank in silence, never taking eyes off him.

"I'm not gonna jump on you anytime soon."- he spoke those words without thinking much about it. Then he realized what he had just said and grimaced.

"You better not try."- she hissed from behind her mug.- "And for your information, I don't believe what that girl said."

He almost spit his coffee- "You've been eavesdropping on us!?"

"I know you clowns enough to know when something's up."- she didn't mention that it was mostly luck and intuition.- "You believe her?"

"Honestly, I don't know."- he shook his head, massaging his forehead with the hand not holding the mug- "I don't have reasons to doubt her, but... I mean, I know myself. And I know you."- he looked at her meaningfully. Then he frowned- "We sucked as parents, from the little I got to know."

"We'd fight all the time and end up drunk together if we'd stay side by side 24/7."- Janine commented, finishing her coffee.

Peter chuckled- "I don't know about that, but it seems we got married, moved and tried to keep her away from any paranormal stuff."

"Let me guess. Dropped out of high school and jumped right back into the businness."- she hypotesized, trying to button up one of the cuffs of the shirt.

"Lemme..."- he moved to the chair next to her and helped her. Damned tight buttonholes.- "Pretty much, except she didn't drop out of school. She got Winston to secretly teach her and sneak into her bag Egon and Ray's notes about our equipment."

"He kept living here?"- She asked offering him the other wrist- "Even after what had happened?"

"Seems like he trained himself a new team."- Peter fidgeted with the second cuff- "When we got to know about Evie playing Ghostbusters, we got back too."- he raised his face to meet her eyes- "That's when I die to save her, about a week ago."

"Poor thing...she must've felt so guilty..."- she moaned. Then straightened her back- "We gotta make things right. I know we're not the same persons as we're in her reality. But we gotta do something."

He nodded, serious. Then he cracked up- "We sound too serious."

"C'mon, this is important!"- she slapped his shoulder but couldn't avoid laughing too.

* * *

Evie, unseen, looked at them from the staircase and smiled.

"Evie."- Winston greeted her as she walked back to the bunkroom- "Slept some?"

She nodded, smiling. The scene she had just witnessed had warmed her heart up; she got to know there was a point in time where her parents were happy.- "Take me out for breakfast, as we always do."- she grabbed his arm and held it tight.

He laughed and patted her hair- "We need to take care of businness first, then we can go out."

"Oh, right."- she pouted, making the patch on her chin wrinkle- "I like this reality. I almost forgot what's my mission."

She was a kid afterall. The man smiled and sighed- "Let's wake up the others and get some breakfast while we discuss. I'll treat you to lunch when it's all over."

She let out a pleased squeal and hugged him, jumping then straight down the pole to slide to the kitchen.

"She likes you a lot."- Ray's voice made Winston turn to face him. He was stretching his back, looked like they all slept badly.

"Seems so."- Winston replied - "It's gonna be a though day... You think he can take it?"- he nodded towards the only bed still hosting its occupant.

"I sure hope he can."- Ray frowned looking at the sleeping man. He felt like his usual optimism hadn't followed him out of bed that morning. - "I'll wake him up. You go down and join the others, ok?"

They parted, not looking forward of the hard day they were about to face.

* * *

Sliding down the pole, the girl forgot to stop and slid straight to the bottom floor, where she had a close encounter with a frightened Slimer: she inadvertently caught him eat some snacks he had stolen from the kitchen, getting slimed as he fled. Abandoning the yucky shirt on the floor, she paid a quick visit to the basement, grabbed a random shirt from the dryer and joined the others upstairs.

"What?"- Evie pouted once again, feeling everyone's eyes on her. Glancing sideways at the redhead standing beside her, she noticed they were dressed up pretty much in the same way. One in pink, the other in white. - "Hello big sis!"- she laughed, waving at Janine.

Janine weighted on one leg and rested her hand on her hip- "Yo!"- she waved back.

"Wow, how could't we notice? You two are twins!"- Ray exclaimed putting down his sandwich.  
While they had been waiting for the girl to join them, Janine had confessed to everyone her bad deed from last night. Seeing she was more or less cool with what she had learned made them all feel a tad better. The talk with Peter had probably eased her mind a bit.

"Just, the big sis stopped growing too soon..."- Peter commented, referring to the fact that Janine -not wearing her high heels- was a good span shorter than Evie.

On her part, the redhead frowned and flipped him off. Then she resumed smiling as if nothing happened - "Laundry should be done by now. Excuse me."

* * *

Outside, lurking undetected, two flying beings spied on the people gathered around the table.

"She's the one the boss wants."- the bigger one grunted to the other.

"I-I can't see!"- the smaller one tried to get a clean look inside the room, he was hit by the other entity.

"Don't waste my time! Go in there and grab the half-naked female with long hair!"- the bigger one growled, pushing its servant away- "And do it fast, we can't keep the Master wait too long!"

* * *

Janine had barely the time to turn when Evie's meter's alarm loudly went off, beeping over the noise of shattering glass. Everyone jumped to their feet.- "Is it him?"- Winston yelled over the noise.

"No! It's something else, probably a class 5!"- the girl screamed loud, her voice being covered now by both her and Egon's meter beeping madly. - "I can't locate it!"

"G..Guys..."- Janine stood still, the winged ghost stood a few feet away, looking around. - "Guys..."

Everyone stopped caring about the meters and followed her voice. Winston pulled Evie behind his back- "You don't move from here."- he commanded. She tried to fight, but he stopped her- "Dont. Move."

"We can take it down with our equipment."- Egon stated as Peter and Ray put on the packs they had previously carried to the dining area 'just in case'.

"We can't shoot now..."- Ray tried and failed to get a clear shot at the entity.- "Janine, get away!"

"I would if I could..."- she replied, looking around for a clear escape. Throwing herself down the stairs wasn't a good option, as well as running upstairs. Joining the others would have meant to lead the ghost right to Egon. Or to Evie. They both were targets at that point.

The ghost took his time before acting, sniffing around and looking at them. He seemed to be deciding which of them he needed. Janine noticed the cardboard box near her. If only she could grab the gun...

"A female with long dark hair..."- the ghost finally spoke, approaching- "...in indecent clothes. You must be my target. You must be the one who dared to challenge my Master..."

"W-wait a minute here..."- wondering if that idiot was color-blind, Janine realized it thought she was Evie. She felt that the ghost would have dived for her the moment she'd move.

With Winston being busy hiding the true target of the gargoyle-like ghost, Egon knew he had to do something. Ha wasn't armed, so he decided he had to be the one to help the others get a clean shot.

"Blast it!"- he yelled, knee sliding on the floor and grabbing the redhead's legs, making her fall backwards. To her yelp, proton streams were fired with precision.

The action was so sudden that Evie, scared, screamed from her hiding place, her voice overshadowed by the ghost skreeching and traps opening. Then silence fell on them.

"Everyone fine?"- Peter asked, turning off his pack.- "Ray?"

"I'm good."- the shorter man nodded. Winston and Evie looked fine too.- "Janine?"

"I think I'm ok.."- the secretary moaned, sitting up and kneeling, feeling dizzy from the sudden fall.- "Egon?"

"I wonder how it could get here undetected."- the man said, still lying on the ground.

"I guess he's fine"- Evie giggled from her safe spot behind Winston.

"We really need to fix this. Now we're having troubles even detecting his minions."- Peter took off his pack, reaching the couch and throwing himself onto it. A really cold breeze invaded the room, the window was badly damaged. No one really cared about it, it was a minor problem in the economy of their lives.

"I think I sprained my ankle."- Janine massaged the sore spot, shifting to crouch more comfortably.

"I'll go get some ice."- Egon volunteered. He needed some for his arm too, the sudden movement had unsettled the strained muscle and it was giving him hell. She accepted the offer with a warm smile, her eyes rewarding him with a special glance.

Observing them, Evie noticed how their relation seemed to be based on simple, discreet gestures. Nothing like her parent's one. Her parent's relationship was all about loud yelling, grief and duty. That woman looked so different than the detached, somewhat cold person her mother was. Evie followed the blond man with her eyes.  
There it was her greatest enemy - the person whose ghost had haunted her since forever - walking into the kitchen to dig up some ice.

She was so caught up she barely noticed the meter going off again.

This time action was even faster, the ghost bigger. Before anyone could move a muscle it burst into the room, completely wrecking the already damaged window.

A scream made the girl turn and catch a glimpse of Janine being dragged out of the hole, Peter tightly clinging to her waist.  
Evie went for her gun, that had been resting in the cardboard box all along, and leaned through the hole, blasting shots at the kidnapper.

"STOP! You'll get them killed!"- this time it was the occultist restraining her arms.

"Tolay's gonna kill her!"- She could just keep struggling and cry out- "He's gonna kill her and I'll disappear!"

She stopped yelling only when a stingy pain spread from her cheeck. Her greatest enemy had just slapped her.

"Compose yourself."- Egon ordered, dead serious.

"Egon!"- Ray protested, grabbing his wrist- "What's wrong with you?!"

"We have no time to spare right now."- he replied, freeing his hand and glaring at him.- "Shooting randomly from the window, really?"

Winston broke them up, the least they needed was a fight. - "Time out guys. Let's go to the lab and plan."

As the men discussed, Evie massaged her face. Shooting from the window. She thought back to when she had been taught the basics of the job. Never endanger civilians. Reduce damage always when possible. Don't effing randomly shoot when you don't have a clear view.- "Thanks."

The men turned to look at her. To their questioning looks, she elaborated more- "I needed that."- she grinned- "Ain't a job for kids, as someone once told me."

The mood switched from angsty to a more relaxed one, just Ray kept glaring at his taller friend.

"I know, I apologize."- Egon gave up and admitted his mistake- "Even if it's a good technique when dealing with psychophysical agitation, I should have refrained."- he offered his hand for Evie to shake- "Peace?"

She shook his hand, flashing a grin- "It's all right."

"Shall we get going upstairs?"- Winston didn't like at all the situation. Monsters popping out of nowhere undetected and the enemy taking two precious hostages.- "Any ideas?"

"I have a plan."

Egon and Evie looked at each other. They had just spoken the same words at the same time.

"Ladies first"- he bowed, elegantly gesturing in the general direction of the staircase.


	5. Chapter 5

Minutes later they were in the lab. According to the data from Evie's meter they had 24-30 hours to follow through with their plan. Even if he had become powerful, Tolay still needed to respect powers greater than him: it would be dangerous even to a demon like him to destabilize the very texture of time and space.

It all was to their advantage.

As for Peter and Janine... they could only hope they still were alive. Evie's meter could not pick up their readings, just a few residuals. Blindly looking for them would be a waste of time. They counted on Tolay's sadistic nature. He would have preferred to kill them in front of their friends. Or try to trade his hostages with his real targets.

The girl was now building from scratch a charger for her gun. She hadn't just forgot her wallet, she also had left her charger next to the darn wallet. To be more comfortable as she worked, her hair was tied again in a neat chignon. She also had borrowed one of Peter's jumpsuits.

Her long fingers worked fast and she seemed familiar with that task.

"You sure are quick"- Ray stretched his neck to look at her work from over her shoulders.

"The new Ghostbusters sure hate me for this."- She giggled, screwing one last screw- "There, this should do..."- she tried to attach the makeshift charger to her gun- "Yup, fits nicely."

She stood and plugged the gun together with the other proton packs.

"Too young and too good?"- Winston asked without taking his eyes off the control panel he had to check while Egon worked to activate their artificial interdimensional portal.

"Don't forget too pretty."- she turned around and stroke a pose, Venkman style.

Ray picked up that familiar behaviour, but something he couldn't pinpoint bothered him.- "Evie, we should check your trap before you go."- he didn't have time right now to follow his thoughts, they needed to get ready.

The girl handed over her pocket size round trap- "It should be good to go."

Ray held the trap in his hand, weighted it, observed it closely. It was so light, yet so powerful.

"The progressive micronization of components let us convert the old traps to this new model."- She explained- "It works exactly like your traps."

"Is this the power meter?"- the occultist tapped on a tiny led on the side of the little device.

"Exactly."- she nodded, engaging then in a technical discussion. Being the trap so similar to the ones they had, Ray knew he wouldn't have messed the time-continuum by talking with her about it. Was there a point in trying not to mess the continuum anymore? They were about to mess it up good if their plan worked.

"I'm ready."- Egon announced, turning on the tuned device. The frame, a few seconds earlier empty, filled with light and gave out a faint glow.- "It's set it to the coordinates leading to Tolay's den."

"Perfect. I'll go trap him"- Evie straightened her shoulders- "Then we'll release him right in front of the Tolay from the future. It's gonna be an instakill. My plan's perfect!"

"We'll need first to nullify the energetic shield evidently protecting your Tolay from our weapons"- the physicist made her notice the huge flaw in her plan.

The stars shining in her eyes disappeared, she hated to be outsmarted.

"Can't beat the guy, young lady."- Winston grabbed her shoulder and squeezed it- "You need a tad more experience."

"We'll solve that bit of the problem while you're out trapping the present version of Tolay."- the auburn haired man joined Egon to run the last check before opening the portal- "Passage opening in five minutes."- he announced, reading the data scrolling on the monitor- "Get ready."

The original plan of her going alone was modified to include Winston in the picture. She knew him well, they had trained together in her reality. Thanks to her weapons and to his experience they hopefully would be able to trap the demon. To their advantage, time in the Netherworld flowed faster: even if it'd take them an hour or two to bust Tolay, they'd be back to the lab in no more than 20 minutes.

"Hold my hand."- Winston whispered to the girl as they finally stood in front of the portal. Last thing they needed was to get separated as they transferred to the other dimension.

She obeyed in silence and they stepped together into the light.

* * *

Coming to his senses, Peter woke up laying sprawled on a cold, smooth floor. He sat up, shivering.

Sweatpants and tshirt was really not the suitable wear for such a place.

Thousands of sharp spikes emerged from the walls of their narrow prison, oddly glowing and looking deadly enough to discourage him from touching them. Janine, laying unconscious beside him, was shivering in cold. Stockings and cotton shirt were an even less suitable choice.

A bump was forming on her forehead, she probably had landed harder than he had. He needed to find a way to make her body temperature rise, fast.

Surprisingly enough, a couple of blankets laid folded at their feet. So the 'master' didn't plan to kill them as yet. There was no food or water, meaning their stay in his prison was meant to be relatively short. Paying attention not to touch the spikes, the man did the only thing he could think of to aid the unconscious woman.

* * *

"Man, the more i see this place, the less I like it."- Winston's voice echoed through the desolate land that was the Netherworld. It wasn't his first trip to that place, and everytime he heartfeltly wished it was his last.

"Wouldn't be my choice for a holiday..."- Evie still tightly held his hand. That place gave her the creeps.

"Let's scan the area and get done with it fast."- the man prompted her to check her meter. Then he chuckled- "Can I have my hand back for a while?"

She realized he needed to hold his rifle to defend them while she would be busy scanning. She let his hand go, blushing- "It's..It's ok. I'm not scared."- raising her chin, she commanded herself to act like a pro.

"Always stay by my side, ok?"- he instructed her as she took out her meter and set it to find their target. She hummed, nodding- she was already caught up in her task. Winston shook his head. He knew too well that kind of behaviour and he knew it could mean trouble.

Half an hour of walking later, they still had 30 or maybe even 40 minutes to go before finally reaching Tolay's fortress. So far no one had attacked them, but the man knew they were going to be properly welcomed when close enough. He saw her stopping.- "Are you tired, Evie?"

She shook her head- "Just thirsty..."- she was sweating. She had a fit body and could move fast, but she didn't seem used to long trekking sessions. The suit's weight was making it harder on her. She drank from the canteen she had borrowed from Ray and sighed in relief.

"Can I ask you a question?"- he spoke when she was done drinking. She nodded, wiping her forehead with her arm.- "What made you decide to become a Ghostbusters?"

She started to reply as they resumed walking- "You used to tell me about the time you and my Dad were Ghostbusters. Even Dad sometimes would tell me about those times, show me old newspapers. Mom never would. I asked her a few times and she'd get that sad expression on her face."- she paused, she was tired of walking under the scorching sun- "Then one day we were in the lab looking at old papers. It was me, you and Dad. I liked to see your eyes light up as you remembered those times, even if it hurt."

Winston listened in silence to her words. He could picture the scene in his mind, feel what his future self would feel, reminiscing about old, glorious, forever lost days.

"Then something messed up downstairs. The new team did something stupid with a trap and some hairy monster came out."- Evie didn't even remember the looks of the first ghost she ever trapped. Just remembered it was huge. And horribly hairy. She grimaced.- "They rushed downstairs and tried to help trap it again before it destroyed the firehouse."

"What did you do then?"- the man asked, signaling her to stop walking to visually inspect the fields around them. Still no welcoming party in sight. He nodded and they moved again.

"I remembered some notes I borrowed. I'm no scientist, but I knew they'd need a destabilizer to toast the bastard properly. Just it wasn't working and laid abandoned in the lab." - she looked around uncomfortably. He was getting more and more careful, meaning she was going to take part to a battle soon. The idea made her feel nervous. - "I had this weird idea of using some pieces of the hoover to fix the destabilizer. Hopefully it would have worked long enough to save the day without exploding in my hands."

Winston shot her a reproaching look. - "That was an idea so sick and reckless that..."

"Hey, I'm still alive!"- she laughed, amused by him scolding her more or less the same way his future self did when it happened- "Means it worked, doesn't it?"

"Let me guess, you got in huge trouble for doing that."

To his words she nodded- "I had a bad fight with my parents because of that. For the first time in my life I could do something right and they just went crazy. I could understand the pain of their losses, but I was sure I wouldn't have died. I wanted to become a Ghostbuster, I was good at it. I felt I could work hard and become a pro. I wanted to track down the demon responsible for all of your pain."

The situation was getting more and more clear to Winston. A soft wind sweeped the dust off the ground, offering relief to their heated bodies.

She kept talking- "Mom and Dad knew they couldn't stop me. I knew too much about the equipment by then. Maybe I couldn't build a containment unit by myself, but I knew enough to put together a weapon, a meter and a set of traps."

"They decided it was better to keep an eye on you rather than have you do it behind their back."- Winston commented. The fortress was closer. They left the open field to slide down a small cliff, they would have approached the fortress from one side.

"Everything was fine, a year passed. One day – I was looking for more notes about the packs- I discovered something I shouldn't have."- she admitted once they were safely on the lower path.

"You found out the name of the culprit."- the man guessed. He was right. She had discovered more than that, but didn't let him know. She just nodded.

"I think I can imagine what happened next."- he said, misinterpreting the shadow appearing in her eyes.

Evie nodded again, guilty- "Mom had to witness Dad die. More or less the same way Egon had died. It was her closing off the portal to prevent To-"- Winston covered her mouth with his hand. Not good to say some names out loud. She frowned and nodded, he removed his hand.- "- to prevent 'him' from hurting me."

"She's always been a strong person."- he dared to lower his thrower to pass an arm around her shoulders and hold her as they kept going.

"I had just started to understand them."- she smiled a bitter smile- "I had always thought I was a bother to them, before I got to know their past. Then...bang!"- she raised her hands clenching her fists then opened them, mimicking an explosion- "All gone. And I become the new Egon in T... in 'his' eyes. I knew Mom was plotting something to protect me, but I acted faster. I didn't want her to die. I decided to pretend I wasn't feeling well enough to attend Dad's funeral and time travelled."

"There will be no funeral to attend to when we're done."- he tightened his grip on her- "I promise you."

She stepped in front of him, making him stop- "Will we still be friends when..."

He had his doubts about her ever being born if Egon survived. What were the chances of the secretary and her man's best friend hooking up?

He dismissed that thought and smiled without hesitation. - "No doubt about that, baby."

* * *

Clothes laying in a small pile in front of him, Peter crouched naked on one blanket, the other one wrapped around his shoulders. Luckily Janine's body was tiny enough for him to be able to keep all of it under the blanket as he cradled her.

"She's gonna flip out when she wakes up"- he thought to himself, inadvertently catching a glimpse of her bare chest and immediately going back to stare at the spiked walls of their cell. On her part, every now and then she'd shift position, snuggling up against his warmer body.

"C'mon, hurry up sucking my heat off."- he realized how wrongly he had worded that thought.- "What the hell am I doing?"- he hung his shoulders and rested his forehead on top of the redhead's head. - "Just wake up already..."

He was starting to feel dizzy himself. He couldn't rest his back on the walls and Janine's limp form was starting to feel heavy in his arms. Slowly he closed his eyes.

When he opened them again he found himself in a dream.

Sitting with his back resting against the wall, he was holding Janine in his arms. She was soaked in blood to the point that its smell made his head spin. Was it her own blood?

He hastily passed his free hand on her arms, her legs, her back, her stomach to check if she had any wounds. He felt something strange, but could barely realize it because an explosion made him lift his head and look at the ceiling. He held her tighter and curled up, trying to shield her as debris fell from above.

Why was he hiding behind the basement's staircase?

His head felt heavy, pain strangling his temples. He knew he had to stay hidden. There was something upstairs. He didn't know what, but he knew he'd have died if he moved from that spot. She'd have died. He couldn't let her die.

"I promised?"- he thought. He promised he would have saved her and... something else. What else did he promise?

Cold ghostly hands grabbed his shoulders and a deep voice he knew well whispered into his ear.

Peter yelled at the top of his lunghs, regaining consciousness in the spiked room.

Startled by his yell, Janine woke up from her sleep and moved aside, scared.

"What the hell...?"- her voice trailed off. She realized he was naked.- "Peter, what the..."- she realized she was naked too.- "PETER!"

Her scream, as well as the sound of a good slap, echoed in the empty room.

"Dammit!"- he didn't know if to cover his ears or to shield his face- "Don't yell so loud!"

"You started it!"- she replied, forgetting to lower her voice as she did. Not yet aware of their surroundings, she turned to stand up, getting her bare back too close to the spikes.

"Don't!"- he stopped her just in time, pulling her back against him.

Dizzy, she stayed still for a while, breathing hard from the surprise and the sudden sickness she was trying to control. Closing her eyes she inhaled deeply, resting her forehead on his shoulder.

She spoke slowly- "Dr. Venkman. Give me a good explanation for all of this and make it quick and coherent."

The man tried to cover her again with the blanket, pushing a bit to force her into her previous position in his arms. She didn't fight back. - "Calm down a bit, ok? I'm not enjoying this."

She could just nod, now aware of the cold surrounding them. Her head hurt, pain irradiating from a spot on her hairline.

"We're trapped here. The gargoyle kidnapped us, remember?"- he massaged her shivering arms- "You hit your head and we were freezing. A-and you were not waking up. That's it. We need to get you warm again."

"Legit enough."- she uttered, pressing herself against him. - "What's this place?"

"I told you, we're trapped. Tolay's probably planning to use us as bait."- he looked and looked, but couldn't see a way out- "They made it so we can survive for a while, but we have no food or water."

"So either we starve or get killed."- she was starting to feel less cold.- "We need to... to think of something."

"You need to rest now."- he reminded her- "If you don't warm up enough you won't be able to run... if we ever manage to escape."

"We have to."- the determination in her words was rock solid- "We promised."

Her words made him remember the weird dream he had. No, it wasn't correct to define it a dream.

It was a scrap of an already discarded future. A fragment of a day from Evie's parents past: the day Tolay ruined their lives.

The day Peter had left his friends behind to keep his promise.

"Peter?"- she ventured. He had been silent for a while.

"Janine."- he had all the pieces of the puzzle now. - "While I slept I saw something."

"That's called a 'dream', Peter."- her voice was a tad annoyed.

"I know what a dream is, you..."- he let that sentence drop off. No fights. They both were upset.- "I don't know if it was a dream or something else. I saw... no, I lived a part of the day Tolay killed Ray and Egon. And... and Egon's ghost was in the dream. That's why I yelled."

She sat up, stretching the blanket. She looked at him with a horrified face.- "His ghost? You don't think..."

"No, if our Egon had died, we wouldn't be of any use. They already would have killed us."- he promptly replied - "It was Evie's Egon. The one from her time continuum."

Janine's face showed her incredible relief. It made sense, he couldn't be dead.- "What happened in the dream?"

Peter gestured her to get closer and whispered into her ear.

She gasped, looking at him with teary eyes. Seeing her cry, he felt trails of his own tears rolling down his cheecks. Janine kneeled between his legs and passed her arms around his neck, holding on tight. His arms embraced her, keeping their chests pressed together.

"Don't cry, or I'll cry..."- she sobbed against his neck.

"You.. you're already crying.."- he chuckled as he cried. The sudden understanding of Evie's parents' pain was overwhelming, yet they couldn't help softly laughing as they cried it all out.

"We're a trainwreck."- the redhead pulled back enough to wipe his tears with her hands.

He copied her gesture, holding her face in his hands. Then he rested his forehead against hers.

"I love trainwrecks."- he replied, pecking her on the lips.

* * *

Right out of the fortress, they were ambushed.

"Run!"- Winston bellowed, firing to keep at bay Tolay's minions. - "Run away!"

Evie was kneeling behind a rock a few feet away from him. She was petrified. Never in her life she ever had seen so many monsters. They still hadn't noticed her. His suggestion to turn back and run was so tempting... She didn't think much about it. She jumped out of her hiding place, firing.

"I'm not letting you get all the fun!"- she yelled between the cackle of their streams and the screams of their attackers. Inside she couldn't help thinking they were going to die.

"Don't be a smartass and RUN!"- he yelled back, grabbing her arm and running madly in the general direction of the prisons; there was a safe spot behind the prison he knew they could use to hide. He ran so fast she had trouble keeping up with him.

"MY METER!"- she yelled, feeling the device slip from her pocket and roll away as they fled.

"Leave it!"- he ordered, pulling her. She held back tightly to his arm and pushed her legs to the limit.

"We left 'em behind hopefully..."- he panted minutes later, slumped against a rock wall. The prison was just above them, they could hear the desperate cries of Tolay's prisoners being tortured.

"You... you sure run fast..."- she wheezed, that run beat her good. She had to time travel to discover her best friend used to be a top class runner. The thought made her smile.

"Running is a good b-plan sometimes."- he replied, not telling her that running was often the b-plan of choice.- "We need to find a way to get past the guards. Tolay won't come out just because we need him to."

"We could ask nicely?"- she suggested. Standing on her tips she was able to poke her head over the wall. The place was well guarded, the meter was forever lost. She could see no way to sneak past them. She sat back down against the rock wall. Winston copied her previous position and took a look at the prison himself.

"Yeah, we'll call his name and..."- the Ghostbuster snapped his fingers as he studied the guards' movements.

"I..I didn't call his name but..."- Evie tugged at his jumpsuit, making him turn with his back against the wall of rock.

"Holy..."- the man couldn't believe his eyes.

Tolay was standing in front of them, 60 feet away.

Evie fumbled to extract her proton gun from its holster on her multipurpose belt, powered it up and aimed at the demon.

"He's not as powerful as the one you know."- Winston whispered keeping his eyes on the demon and turning on his pack- "Leave the shooting to me. I'll stun him, you trap it as fast as you can."

"W..we need to get him closer..."- she whispered back- "And why the hell is he here!"

"What are you plotting about, you fleas?"- the demon took a few steps towards them. His attitude wasn't different from his future version. Just this version of Tolay didn't like to lose time talking and, without waiting for their answer, shot a stream of energy – intentionally missing to scare them.

They threw themselves to the ground, covering their heads.

"We need to take him down, fast."- Winston knew they had no place to hide at that point, he repeated his plan to her, to make sure she wouldn't take rushed decisions- "Let me go ahead and stun him, then..."

"I know you, you are one of those Ghostbusters..."- Tolay roared, pointing at the man- "...and you.."- he pointed at Evie- "..you are a fake. A filthy impostor. You shall die first, for you carry the blood of..."

Tolay's words made her jump to her feet and run to him, aiming to the demon's chest.

"_She's gonna get herself killed_"- Winston said to himself and could just run, trying to back her up.

She dodged a bolt, jumped elegantly to one side to avoid a blast. She found herself thinking that picking acrobatic gymnastics had been indeed an useful choice. One last dive as Winston shot to cover her back and she landed close enough to fire. Tolay didn't have a chance to roar before he was caught in the powerful stream of her gun.

To Winston's surprise Evie's gun blocked the demon almost immediately. It had a smaller firing range but was probably as powerful as three of their proton packs. He put back his thrower and ran to her. Time to wrap it up.

"Hand me the gun and trap him!"- he slid his hand over hers to keep the trigger pulled - not to interrupt the flow of the stream. "Trap him! Be careful while he goes down!"- he instructed her, hoping she wouldn't endanger herself anymore. He had a bad feeling that wouldn't go away.

Evie took her round trap in her hands and lifted it in front of her.

Her thumb found its switch, a blinding white light engulfed the entity. The same light that had prevented the other Tolay from blasting them a few days earlier. One useful trap, alright.

"We did it!"- she cried, holding the precious full trap to her chest- "We DID it!"

The man heaved a sigh of relief and approached her, handing out the gun to her- "Good job, partner."

She smiled a huge smile, accepting the gun.- "I told ya it would've been a piece of cake!"

"You just got lucky..."- he poked her forehead- "If I hadn't been backing up, you'd be as crispy as fried bacon."- he intended to reproach her, but he couldn't stop smiling.

"Need to train me more."- she took his arm.- "Shall we?"

The ground shook, making them stick closer. Tolay's backup was on its way.

"Up for another run?"- he started to drag her - first walking, then hastening the pace.

She groaned, rubbing her left eye. - "I think I got dust in my eye..."

"No time for that, I'll guide you!"- he sprinted, dragging her along with him through the endless, bare, rocky fields of the Netherworld.

* * *

"Hey, listen to this. I think I'm on to something: Chronos, husband of Necessity, God and ruler of time. He is traditionally depicted as a snake with three heads."- Ray read from one of the countless books laying scattered on the table in front of him. It was a particularly old text, written in medieval greek. The occultist didn't own the original manuscript – it would have been impossible to find- but a finely bound transcription printed in the early 60s- "In latter times he started to be pictured as an old bearded man."

Egon was keeping the interdimensional travelling device in check as he listened to his friend.

They had been formulating many theories as they waited for Winston and Evie to be back and the only plausible explanation was that Tolay had gained his infinite powers from a contact with a superior entity; 15, 20 or even 30 years were just not enough for a demon of his class to become so powerful so fast. In addition to that, Evie had clearly stated she had 'syncronized her traps to Tolay's time-travelling spell'. It meant she knew Tolay was using some kind of magic.

"Throughout the centuries a few humans succeedingly established a contact with the Father of Time."- Ray summarized the text as he read- "To make it short, once you successfully manage to get in contact with him, he will grant your wish."

"That sounds cheap, Ray."- the physicist commented from his seat.

"The only way to summon him is to use a lost manufact, probably a statuette..."- Ray glanced through the pages, translating the ancient text as he read- "...it seems it got lost a long time ago, before this book was written..."

Egon thought over his words as the auburn haired man was silent, checking his dictionary. He remembered a story someone once had told him. An improbable medieval tale about a magical statuette.

Was it his grandfather who had told him?

A man, desperate because a drought had destroyed his crops, had no means to feed his family. His only chance was to try and dig a new well. As he dug and dug, he saw something sparkling faintly: it was an old statuette. The man thought of selling the statuette, but it was so ugly no one wanted to buy it. It wasn't made of gold, it wasn't made of silver either. Just plain iron. But then, one night...

"Are you listening to me?"- Ray raised his voice to try and cut through the layers of thought clouding his friend's mind.

"Uhm... the statuette got lost in medieval times..?"- Egon had stopped listening about there. Ray sighed.

"Don't wander off on my at a time like this, please.."- the younger man scratched his forehead- "I was asking you if you knew how to translate this passage here."- he tapped his finger on the page.

Embarrassed, the blond covered the small distance between himself and the table and picked up the book. His eyes widened as his mind translated the faded words printed on that page.

"What is it? What does it say?"- Ray stood up and stepped beside him.

"I know this legend."- Egon kept reading over and over in his mind the passage the other had troubles translating- "It's been in my family for quite some time."- he flipped the page, and noticed how the text was unreadable, ruined by too many years into some mouldy basement.- "The conclusion is missing."- he laconically stated.

"But you know the conclusion."- Ray beamed- "The poor peasant digs up the statuette by chance. What happens then?"

"The rest of the tale is rather predictable."- Egon walked back to the control panel. "One night, an old man – a pilgrim I believe- knocks on his door asking for hospitality. The family barely has food for themselves but agree to let the old pilgrim stay and share the little they have with him. Right before leaving, the pilgrim asks the peasant to gift him with the old statuette and the man, surprised, lets him have it."

"The pilgrim was Chronos. Once reunited to his divine manufact, he grants them one wish in exchange for their kindness"- Ray concluded.

"Exactly. Nothing more than a children's tale."- Egon eyed the wall clock as he spoke- "Winston and Evie should be back soon."

"What if the story is not a legend and that man was one of your ancestors?"- the occultist discarded Egon's latter statement, his face a mask of excitement. He loved that kind of stuff.- "Supernatural manufacts often are inprinted with the essence of their users. You could have some control over that statuette. That could explain why Tolay is so determined to kill you. I mean we all fought him and we all trapped his brother, he should be after the four of us."

"Nonsense."- the physicist cut short- "Given that the legend is a true story, and given that Tolay was in possess of the statuette when he trapped me – thus recognizing me as a dangerous threat- then why not killing me when I was locked up in his prison?"

Ray opened his mouth to object, but was anticipated.

"And in case Tolay found it in a later time, why using his wish to go back in time to kill me? He already had killed me years before attacking Evie."

"Because... because time travelling is fun?"- Ray ventured. He sure would have done so if he were Tolay. - "Do you have any thoughts about why Tolay behaved as he did?"

"There's something... something is not quite right.."- Egon crossed his arms, closing his eyes- "We are missing something.."

"Let's think about what Evie told us."- the younger man found a piece of chalk into the drawer of the table and started scribbling on the blackboard hanging from the wall. He divided the board in two halves: 'original timeline' / 'our timeline'. He then started writing down the events relevant to their case. Egon looked at him in silence, mentally recalling any detail he could.

Five minutes later, the two men stood side by side observing the scheme on the blackboard.

"What if..."- they both commenced at the same time. Egon nodded, Ray talked first. They knew they were thinking the same thing.

"What if Tolay found Chrono's statuette years after he first met us?"

"That would explain why he would suddenly come to our world and try to kill me."- Egon replied with ease. In Evie's timeline, Tolay had no apparent motive to attack them without being threatened. So far so good. They both agreed on that. - "I have my doubts about Tolay ever being able to actually use the statuette."- Egon added thoughtfully- "It doesn't sound likely."

"It seems unlikely to me too that a kind-natured god could grant an evil entity's wish."- Ray frowned. That bit of the story bothered him deeply. Then he had an idea- "It could be Tolay never got in contact with Chronos."- He sat back at the table and opened yet another book, then another.

"Would you care to elaborate on that?"- Egon asked, sitting down too.

"Well..."- the occultist stayed silent for a bit, giving order to his thoughts- "...we know that the more powerful the entity, the more powerful any item related to it. What if the statuette itself had an incredible amount of power within itself?"

That made a lot of sense. - "Tolay increased his power absorbing the manufact's power. Not being human, he could have assimilated the latent energy in the statuette."- the blond thought aloud.- "That would explain why he wouldn't just use his wish to make it so we never existed, if such a wish would ever be acknowledged by Chronos."

"That power is so peculiar and great to be able override the past."- Ray was amazed. He had never read of anything so powerful in his books, nor ever witnessed it.- "Or the two Tolays would have met in Central Park."

"If our theory is correct, then yes."- the blond commented.- "Anyway, he didn't succeed on his first try."

"So he gathered enough energy to come back, and that's when he killed us both."- Ray cringed inside.- "Evie found out his name and the info about him years later, hunted him down."

"I suspect the day Peter died was not the first time Tolay met her."- Egon scratched his chin as he voiced his thoughts.

"She went to the Netherworld, that's the only way he could be aware of her existance."- the option sounded likely to the occultist, she was one stubborn child. He remained silent. Why then Tolay would time-travel to eliminate her?

Then it all came to him, making him gasp.

"Kill two in one go."- the physicist once again voiced Ray's thoughts.

"Evie is..."- realization hit Ray like a slap as the control panel of their portal started to beep.

"Something's coming."- Egon rushed back to the panel- "Let's make sure it's them."

* * *

"Are you done yet?"- Janine was all rolled up in the two blankets, her head and face covered.

"Almost..."- Peter replied, sliding into his pants. He put on his shirt- "Done!"

She poked her head from the blanket- "You don't spy me while I get dressed or..."

"I get it, I get it..."- he put on his socks and sneakers, then sat down beside her. She threw the blanket on his head.

He heard her move. A few seconds and he heard the swishing noise of the shirt being worn.

"Alright. I'm decent."

When he pulled off the blanket she was adjusting her hair, looking at her reflection on the walls.

"That's hardly decent."- he thought, mentally chuckling. She didn't even have any shoes. With her hair all mussed up she looked as if she was right out of a softcore movie. No matter how pretty, he could only think of her as a sister. A very dear one.

"I can't find my glasses."- she groaned, looking around. Her feet felt so cold.

Without her glasses on she looked even more like that child Tolay wanted to kill so bad.

"Here."- he dug them up from his pants' pocket and handed them to her. Janine put them on and sighed in relief.- "Feels good?"

"Yup."- she nodded.- "Damn, I'm freezing.."- lightheaded, she bent her knees to retrieve one of the blankets from the floor. Feeling another wave of sudden and strong dizzyness, she couldn't control her balance anymore and fell onwards. The man caught her, but slipped on the blanket.

They both fell right on the spikes.

Peter kept his eyes tightly shut. He felt he was slumped against one wall, Janine's weight pressing on him. Was he dead already?

He opened his eyes, looked down. They both looked like pincushions.

She looked up at him, her face virtually skewered by at least ten spikes- "You ok?"

No blood, no pain. Either they had died and become ghosts or they had just been had.

"I think I am fine.."- he tried to move his arms. He could pass them through the spikes. A strong repulsion was taking hold of his brain, his cells screaming to get away from the walls.

Janine pushed herself up and lied back down on the scattered blankets, curling up.

Peter stopped playing with the holografic spikes and followed her, massaging her arm- "Is your head hurting? Need to throw up?"

"Just dizzy. And cold."- she uttered.- "I'm gonna be fine... let's just.. get out of this place.."

He covered her up with one blanket. - "We've been had. They used some kind of spell to compel us not to touch the damn spikes. If we're lucky we shouldn't be far from the firehouse."

"W..we flew for.. how long?"- she stammered, keeping her eyes closed.- "I remember... I remember seeing the firehouse become smaller and smaller from above..."- It was becoming hard to think, her body was so damn cold it hurt.

"Don't fall asleep."- he fought the rejection he felt and pressed his hands against the walls, sliding them all over the smooth surface. Smooth and cold surface.- "Janine, talk to me, don't fall asleep. What can be a cold and smooth room?"

"I don't know.."- she moaned, focusing on his words.- "What are... the walls.. made of?"

Smart question. He knocked on the wall.- "Sounds like Aluminium.."

"... cooler.."- she uttered, feeling dizzy. And cold. And damn sleepy.

A walk-in-cooler. Walk-in-coolers have a security opening system in case someone gets trapped inside. He had to find the door, push the release button.- "I'm gonna open the door."

He moved fast, his palms attached to the walls. Found the door. - "I found it!"

No response from the redhead.

"Dammit!"- Peter turned and kneeled down. He shook her.- "Janine!"

She moaned a questioning sound. Good, she was still responsive. He wrapped her up in the blankets and gathered her in his arms- "I'm taking you outta here. Just hang on."

With one last huge amount of willpower, she passed her arms around his neck and held on to him.

* * *

First thing Evie did once back in the lab was to lay on the floor, trying to catch her breath.

Winston preferred to get rid of his pack and sit down. Lots of mad running had been going on, he felt beat.

"I don't ever wanna run again... for the rest of my life..."- the girl wheezed- "...I swear..."

Winston accepted a bottle of water from Ray's hands and drank slowly- "I thought you were having fun out there..."- he chuckled.

"Lots of fun."- she groaned, sitting up and getting rid of her boots.

"It seems like you accomplished your mission."- Egon squatted in front of her offering a bottle of water. The trap's led was blinking from inside her front pocket.

Evie accepted the water and dug out the trap- "Offcourse we accomplished our mission."- she held the trap out.

"You're missing one contact lens."- the blond accepted the trap and transferred it to his own front pocket.- "You do have blue eyes, afterall. I noticed it when you saved me."

"I lost my glasses when your pack exploded."- she admitted, massaging her abused eyes. Dirt, sweat and contact lenses were not a good combination. - "Took me a while to find them."

"I feel your pain."- Egon patted her shoulder and got up, exchanging amused looks with the other two men.

They waited, observing her as she stood and removed the other lens, let a few drops of eye lubricant give relief to her eyes. She then took out a pair of rimless glasses with vibrant pink sidepieces from her multipurpose belt and slid them up her nose. Something didn't feel right. They were looking at her weirdly again. - "Ok, what did I do this time?"

"You could have told us from the start, you know."- Winston sounded amused, surprised that she would lie to them about such a petty thing as her real eye colour.

"Told you what?"- she sighed. Then she connected the dots and frowned. Had they uncovered her biggest secret already?- "So you guys already figured it out." -she looked guilty for a split second, then added- "I didn't think it was a detail relevant to this case."

Egon and Ray exchanged looks. The physicist nodded and it was Ray giving voice to their theories.

"We think Tolay's after you mostly because of you being Egon's only lineal descendant."

That bit of information was shoking news to Winston, who looked at the duo, prompting them to tell more as he was left rather speechless.

The explanation of their theory left Evie devastated. She sunk her canine into her own lip so hard she was trying to avoid crying. It was her fault. She kept repeating it in her mind, barely feeling the pain radiating from her lip. Getting aware of it, she licked it, faintly tasting blood. - "I don't know why Tolay attacked you those times before I was born. But I know I had the statuette in my backpack the first time I sneaked into the Netherworld."

Stunned silence fell on the room as a faint midday sun filtered from the skylight; it was an incredibly cold, gloomy November day.

"The first time?"- Ray echoed. How many times had that girl gone unnoticed through the portal?

"I went in there alone the first time. I thought I could make it, but I was attacked immediately."- she admitted, feeling like an idiot- "I told my parents I forgot the backpack in the subway."

"So you had the statuette on you?" - Ray couldn't believe it. She touched it and nothing happened. She should have been the one being contacted by Chronos, not Tolay.

"I like old stuff."- she replied- "Walking back to the firehouse from my gymnastic lesson I saw it in some antique's shop window. I... I'm not in statues... but I felt I just HAD to have it. It was cheap, so I bought it and hid it in my backpack, wrapped in my towel. I was already planning to go visit the Netherworld and took the chance that very evening. After I lost that statuette I started researching, I couldn't get it out of my head... and figured out what must have happened. He became too powerful in too little time. I was sure he had stipulated a contract with the god."

She drank a bit of water, they waited for her to be ready and resume talking.

"I never got a chance to try and retrieve the statuette. He caught me unprepared and... happened what you know happened." - she tortured her hair with one hand as she spoke- "Your explanation makes sense to me. He might have fused with the statuette, sucked off its power. It was my fault..."

"It sounds like a bad case of wrong object in the hands of the right person at a very bad moment."- Winston commented from his seat, feeling sorry for her.- "It's not your fault."

"Risking to get killed and... and dropping off such an important item right in that bastard's hands is not a coincidence."- she shook her head violently, giving up to tears- "It could have been, if it hadn't all happened the same day."

She sobbed quietly, feeling guilt crush her. Ray couldn't just stand seeing her so miserable and offered her the little comfort of his hand rubbing her back. She was grateful that no one blamed her, but it didn't change the fact that she was the one to blame.

"Then it's your fault."- the blond spoke, making her turn abruptly to look at him as if he just had thrown a knife right into her chest- "Now tell me, does it change anything?"

"No..."- she moaned, hating his words. She had the same expression Janine had only a few days earlier when she was asked not to accompany them to Central Park. - "It doesn't matter anymore..."

"What would your mother tell you if she were here?"- Egon asked, his eyes meeting hers. He had the looks of someone who already knew what answer he was gonna get.

She thought about it a second, then smiled between tears: "Probably something like...'Get your act together. Go get that bitch and kick his ass.'"

Winston laughed- "I like that plan, girl."


	6. Chapter 6

Dim light filtered through the closed windows and door of that place. It looked like a restaurant. No gargoyles in sight. He wished he had his proton pack. And yeah, a meter too. The place looked abandoned, but hadn't been for long, judging by the small amount of dust settled on the little furniture left. Wide plastic sheets covered the tiled floor of the dining hall, tools laid scattered around. The place was probably undergoing a makeover, he thought.

Peter moved fast and hid behind the counter, laid Janine down on the floor and silently started to search the drawers and cabinets behind him.

"_Bingo._"- he thought, finding a forgotten pile of paper menus. He picked the one on top of it.

Now THAT was their second helping of pure luck for the day: their prison was a chinese restaurant barely three blocks away from the firehouse; they seldom used to stop there to grab dinner on their way home. Then a new owner had taken over and closed it down for renovations.

"Janine..."- he whispered real close to her ear, caressed her head- "Janine..."

"I'm...awake..."- she uttered, keeping her eyes closed.- "Where...?"

"We're real close to home. We only need to find a way to contact the guys."- no electricity in that place, surely it had been shut down to protect the workers. Hopefully the phone line would still be working. - "I need you to stay awake."

"I'm trying..."- she clenched her teeth and pushed hard with her arms to sit up. He helped her up, made sure the blanket covered her up completely. It didn't feel as cold as before, but she still felt too lightheaded.

"Hide here, don't move."- he kept whispering. Last thing he wanted was to let that monster know they were free. It surely wasn't that far, probably was lurking somewhere around the restaurant, guarding the place.- "I'll find a telephone and call for help."

"Be careful.."- her voice was steady, she wouldn't give up to lethargy. -"If the bastard comes my way I'll keep it busy."

"It won't be necessary.."- he didn't want her to move. If she got killed, Evie'd have disappeared.- "It'll take one second. Just don't move and don't make noise."

She nodded, sitting up more comfortably against the wall- "Just go now."

The phone that used to be on the counter was gone. He knew there was a second one in the backroom, he'd seen it before. Keeping it as silent as possible, he glanced past the half-open door.

There it was their guard, napping just across the room.

For a moment he felt the urge to go back, grab Janine and just run the hell out of there. He inhaled deeply, held his breath. He slid one hand over the wall, into the room. His fingers touched the wall phone. Daring to push his shoulder a tad more, he unhooked the receiver from its base.

He stopped moving. The gargoyle was still sleeping. Peter drew his arm back, the cord was barely enough for the receiver to be fully taken past the door frame. No good, he was have seriously risking to wake the monster up. That grotesque entity was fast and they were defenseless: it could have killed them with ease.

He had to take the risk.

Stretching the phone's spiraled cord to the max, Peter gained a few more inches. He hastily pushed the buttons on the receiver, hoping his friends would pick the call up quickly.

* * *

Three Ghostbusters and one teenager were gathered around the table, observing the poor remains of Evie's meter. On their run back to the portal, Evie could spot it and grab it, but she wished she never did.

"My poor baby..."- she moaned - "It's beyond repair..."

"It's vital to salvage the information it recorded, we need to confront the readings of both versions of Tolay to isolate the statuette's waves."- Egon reminded her. It was a mission impossible, but they had to try. The core of the meter looked intact but the external case was badly damaged. No working monitor, no apparent way to visualize the data; their equipment was not advanced enough to decode the informations within the device.

"We'll figure out something. For example we could-"- Ray was just starting to plan what to do when the phone rang. They all jumped up and rushed to pick up the call. It was more likely for it to be a job request rather than a call from their kidnapped friends, but they discarded that thought.

"Ghostbusters."- Ray arrived first. His face changed from expectant to joyful- "Are you ok?... Where..."- he fell silent, nodding to whatever he was being told- "... we'll be there in a second."

The moment he hung up, he was a messed up mix of joy and worry- "They're a couple blocks away from here. The gargoyle is in the building, Peter said they're gonna hide and wait for us."

"It's a class 5, I can take it out."- Evie hurried to unplug her gun from the charger- "Winston and I can go, you two should stay here and figure out how to repair the meter."

It made sense, but it was immediately overruled.

"We're all going."

The two men eyed Egon as if he had just said something blasphemous. In the heat of the moment they couldn't help thinking that with a major crisis going on it would only be natural to use up the limited amount of time available to solve complex technical problems. Then it occurred to them who the kidnapped were.

"What?"- his face had the same look as Evie had produced a few minutes earlier and it made his friends chuckle.

"Nothing."- Winston clasped his shoulder - "Let's go save 'em."

* * *

Peter knew his luck was due to run out soon. He wished it wouldn't so fast.

The receiver's cord was being pulled so hard that it slipped off his hand, thumping first against the door and then on the wall.

The man managed to scurry back to the safety of the counter as the silence got interrupted by the loud footsteps of the winged monster.

"I know you are here..."- the gargoyle's voice was deep and throaty and scary enough to make anyone shiver. He first walked to the kitchen, where the walk-in-cooler was. Hearing the footsteps walk in the opposite directions as them, his two preys decided to move.

Janine held on to Peter and they walked away from the counter – it was too close to the staff area of the restaurant- to hide behind a corner sofa at the opposite end of the room.

They barely had the time to crouch before the entity roared from the kitchen. It knew they had escaped now. Peter wished he had a watch. He knew they couldn't buy much time. Not with Janine unable to move freely. She tugged at his shirt, he turned to look at her. She pointed at the fire extinguisher on the wall. Then she pointed at herself and waved her fists a bit, mimicking a run.  
He got her message: I distract it and you buy time freezing its ass off with the extinguisher. It was their best shot if it found them before their backup could arrive.

Rumbling noises kept coming from the kitchen, their guard was destroying everything back there, looking for them.

Peter took the chance and detached the red tank from the wall, rushing back to his safe spot behind the bright red sofa. The fury of the gargoyle was now being released on the backroom. Next place to trash was the main dining hall. It was being painfully slow in its destructive spree.

Good for them, but absolutely deleterious to their nerves.

"If things go bad, run."- the redhead uttered. She knew she'd only be a drag to him, she knew it well. If he had a chance to save himself...

"Forget it Melnitz."- he hissed back, clutching the fire extinguisher to his chest.

She was about to argue when the room's atmosphere changed, filling with a weird silence. Something powerful smashed the counter, sending debris flying all over the room.

"_This is it_"- she thought, her hands blinly searching the floor for anything to use as a weapon- "_We're as good as dead._"

A window shattering and the familiar noise of a proton stream being shot made them timidly glance from over the sofa.

"About time they arrived."- the psychologist muttered, feeling relieved.

Two rifles and one gun firing, the entity had little room for rebellion. Evie's gun alone would have been enough, but the girl definitely needed some guidance; she had to be kept a close eye on, her tendency to take rushed decisions could have caused troubles even on such a relatively easy job.

A trap was thrown at the right moment and bright light easily sucked the ghost in. The battle was over. A rustle made the armed group turn to face the only furnitured corner of the hall, making Evie's hand twitch to grab again her gun. Winston noticed it and took hold of her wrist before her hand could get to the holster.

Two heads carefully emerged from behind the rest of the corner sofa.

"Found us. Now it's your turn hiding."- it was Peter breaking the silence, standing up. He bent to help the redhead get on her feet.

"Playtime's over, I need an aspirin."- on her part, Janine wanted to go home quickly. She held on to his arm and slowly they made it around the sofa as the others rushed to them. She kept her eyes low to carefully check the floor as her feet moved; mostly because she didn't want to wound her feet and secondly because her head spun like crazy.

"Are you ok?" - Egon asked to both, the lower part of his body entering the woman's visual field. Using up what was left of her physical strenght, she detached from Peter and stepped onwards, standing on her tips to throw her arms around her boyfriend's neck and hide her face against it. Taken aback by the unnatural slowness of her movements, the physicist held her and shot an alarmed look at the brown haired man. Her face was burning, as well as her hands.

"We've been locked up in a cooler."- Peter filled in quickly- "It wasn't turned on, but it was freezing in there." - it was really cold also in the room where they stood- "We need to get her somewhere warm." - he added, knowing it was a superfluous bit of information.

On her part, Janine decided it was safe to do what she had been feeling like doing the whole time and gave in to darkness. As police sirens echoed, she faintly felt one arm sweeping her feet from the floor before giving up to some deserved, fever-induced sleep.

* * *

Police escorted them to the hospital once again, making the trip quick. While Peter got discharged in an hour, Janine had to stay a couple of hours to receive an infusion of warm physiological saline. Luckily her head turned out to be fine and, although opposition was put up by medical staff, she insisted on signing the discharge papers and go home.

By noon three men and Evie were gathered around the dining table, sharing lunch. Planning their next moves and fixing the meter could wait an hour more.

"Is she gonna be alright?"- Evie asked, fidgeting with her fork.

"If her man keeps tailing her like he's been doin' in the past hours, there's zero chance she won't be sent straight back to the hospital the moment she feels sick again."- Peter replied, putting down his burger the strict enough to speak. Sleepless night and tiresome morning were a deadly combo, he felt like he could eat a whole truck of food.

Evie sighed, worried. She still wasn't used to pissed off demons hot for her blood, kidnappings and people getting hurt. She had to get used to it, if she wanted to become a Ghostbuster.

"Is it always this hard?"- she put down the fork. She wasn't feeling at all like eating- "I mean this job. I've never fully realized there's such a high chance of..."- she let her voice trail off. Of getting hurt. Of dying. Of seeing people you care about suffer.

The men exchanged worried looks. No point in lying. Winston lightly nodded, prompting Peter to be the one to talk. The psychologist took her hand.

"It's how this job is, baby."- his mind wandered back to the very first time one of them had gotten badly hurt. The memory of his first time risking to die violently occupied his thoughts for one long second.- "Experience prevents a lot of bad stuff from happening, but we know the risk is high. We chose to live like this."

His eyes conveyed a clear message to her: don't feel forced to follow our path. She nodded, not knowing how to reply to that. Then she looked at her untouched food.

"I should eat."- she thought aloud, discarding the fork and grabbing her burger with her hands. She was about to bite it when a loud thump from upstairs and Janine's high pitched yell made them jump up and stare at each other.

An attack? It was still too soon for Tolay to be able to open another portal and now their meters were powered enough to detect in time such happening.  
What was going on?

* * *

"You should be under medical care right now."- Egon couldn't wipe that frown off his face.

"Now don't get psyched over it."- Janine didn't have the mental strenght to argue with him. She was sitting up in his bed with her back comfortably propped up by pillows, her face still somewhat yellow in the after-effects of hypothermia. Fever was about gone, too.

"I'm not getting 'psyched'."- he moved a bit to crouch more comfortably on his share of bed, close to her knees- "I'm worried, Janine. If I ever even suspected..."

"I didn't know myself."- she put down her half emptied bowl of hot soup and set it on the nightstand. Doctors had dropped a bomb on them, the redhead was still having troubles believing it.

"We should tell the guys. And tell her."- the man put down his plate too, letting it rest on the floor- "She could die now and Tolay wouldn't have any role in it. You'd need to be in a hospital."

"And be even an easier target for our favourite demon of the month."- she stated, leaning back on the pillows.

They stayed silent for several minutes, not knowing what to do or say, lost in their worries.

"Come here, babe."- she opened her arms, inviting him to get closer.

He suppressed an offended snort, leaning on her - "I don't think that's an appropriate way to address me." - he muttered when his head was resting on her lap.

Janine's body lightly shook with laughter, she loved to tick him off and watch his reactions.

"Don't laugh."- he grunted.- "Or I'll have to adopt appropriate countermeasures."- to make his point he poked a ticklish spot on her side.

Taken by surprise the woman yelped, shifting aside- "Ok, ok I got it!"

Silence fell back on them, they could hear faint cutlery noises from downstairs. For a moment everything seemed normal – just a lazy sunday at the firehouse.

"Janine."- his voice had a tone she probably had ever heard coming from him a couple of times.

She stopped moving her fingers, getting aware just then that she was lazily playing with his hair.

"Talk to me..."- she knew he was brooding over something bad. He had been too calm all along and she mentally cursed his bad habit of sistematically bottling up his emotions.

He closed his eyes, unseen, and inhaled deeply- "I'm scared."

"We all are."- she replied, knowing too well it wasn't just a lazy sunday at the firehouse. There was a high chance of them all not surviving to see another sunday to come.

"I'm not scared of Tolay."- he clarified. He knew the risks of the job and fearing for his own and his friends' lives had become something recurring. - "And failure is not an option."- he paused again, feeling her fingers resume caressing his hair. Failure was a really scary option. He reopened his eyes- "I'm more afraid of life than death right now. And afraid to make my father's same mistakes."- he finally blurted out. He didn't like to show vulnerability to anyone.

"You won't."- Janine sat up, making him sit up as well; she got closer and passed her arms around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder- "You're a different person."

He stayed still, so she got closer, encircling his waist with her legs too.- "And you should be worrying first about actually living to see tomorrow."

Still no response from him, she had only managed to make his eyebrows knit up in yet another frown.

She squeezed lightly him with her legs- "I'm scared shit."- she admitted- "I'm scared because I don't want our future to be the same as Evie's past. And I'm scared of having a kid. We're both scared for the same reasons."

"What to do, then?"- he asked, giving up and holding her closer with his sore arm.

"We get our act together, trap that demon and try to be decent parents."- she practically replied.

He cocked one eyebrow, looking at her doubtfully.

"If you have a better idea, it's time to speak it."- the redhead smirked, feeling that the bad moment was over. They'd have time later on to think about becoming parents, it was time to solve the problems of the now.

"I'd rather fry that demon."- he kept up his best serious voice- "Or maybe even..."

"Idiot!"- Janine slapped his shoulder, laughing. She wasn't expecting him to start joking at a time like that.

"That's definitely another unappropriate epithet."- he stated, menaciously raising his free index finger to unleash tickle hell.

In the past two years he had learned to appreciate a less serious approach to life. He was surprised of himself for being able to resort to it in such a grave occasion, but it couldn't hurt. He already had two or three good ideas to propose to his colleagues, he could resume worrying about that when lunch break would be over. About his other fear... he had managed to let her know. They would have it sorted out later.

As all of those thoughts freely wandered into his head he didn't put up resistance to her taking hold of his finger with her hand and blocking it.

Egon took her hand to his lips and quickly kissed it- "I should go join the others."

"You should, yeah."- Janine disentangled herself from him- "I'll come downstairs too."

He was about to tell her she needed to be a good girl and rest till she could but she was faster putting her feet on the ground and standing up, forgetting to do it slowly.

Her head spun and she lost her balance, her hand finding the hot bowl of soup on the nightstand.

* * *

Muffled sounds came from the bunkroom.

Clutching his rifle and ready to fire, Winston carefully poked his head in from the doorway and what he saw made his jaw drop in amusement.

Janine was crouching on the floor, a bowl on her head like an helmet and covered in green slime. Familiar looking green slime. Egon was kneeling by her side, trying his best to stop laughing. Stains on the ceiling signaled the exact point where the food thief had made his escape.

"What the hell?!"- Evie shouted, trying to understand what was going on.

"Someone's been artistically slimed"- Ray covered his mouth with a hand to stifle a laughter.

"Glad it ain't me."- Peter commented, taking the pack off his shoulders and walking to the crime scene. An empty, slimed plate laid on the floor. Egon's bed and Winston's makeshift one needed to be urgently washed. Janine looked ready to commit a murder.

The brown haired man removed the bowl from her head, trying to touch the green mess as little as possible- "You ok?"

"Yeah..."- she groaned, looking down at her dirty clothes.- "I need a shower."

"You do."- Egon commented, managing to compose himself. He drew a handkerchief from his jumpsuit's front pocket to remove the little slime on her nose.- "Close your mouth, please."- he requested before rubbing the cotton on her cheecks and chin. She obeyed.

"We'll need to clean up this place before going to sleep tonight."- Winston's voice made Evie understand they were used to such happenings.

"I knew you had a ghost living with you."- the girl said, looking up at the ceiling- "But I didn't think it was this troublesome. It slimed me this morning too."

"What happened to the spud?"- Peter stood back up, careful not to slip on the puddle.

"I remember playing with it when I was probably 2 or 3."- Evie scratched her bandaged chin, trying to remember- "Then I never met it again. I think Dad told me that Winston had started to plan putting together a new team shortly after that period of time."

Ray didn't like that future at all. Not only he was dead, but also his ghostly friend probably had ended up absorbed or destroyed by a more powerful entity and no one was there to help him. Ray's face lit up a bit again when Peter patted his back. They would have fixed that too.

"There..."- Egon had finished removing the slime off his girlfriend's face. Just her hair, shoulders and legs were a mess of green slime and boiled mushrooms- "You'll definitely need a shower to remove all of it. Though you shouldn't go by yourself."

"That's bold. I'm proud."- Peter used his best serious voice, making his two colleagues snicker.

"I was about to suggest that Evie should accompany her, Peter."- Egon clarified his intentions. He put up a neutral face, but his friends could see from his amused eyes that, under different circumstances, he wouldn't have minded to call it a day and go have a bath with her.

"I don't mind if you come shower with me."- Janine didn't lose time and grabbed his arm, transferring on his jumpsuit a good dose slime- "I don't mind at all."

He kept up his useful poker face, mantaining a dignified neutrality. - "Well..."- he started saying just as Evie yelped, giving the blond another good motive to refuse the offer- "...I think she needs a shower more than I do."

Slime had just dripped from the ceiling and down onto Evie's hair and shoulders. The unfamiliar wet and generally yucky sensation made the girl want to throw up, but she resisted and shrugged it off. - "I accept the offer."- Evie moaned.

* * *

Evie's meter was finally receiving some proper care as the men waited for the delivery boy. More food was definitely needed.

"She was right saying this is beyond repair..."- Ray muttered, observing the device through a magnifier.- "I have never seen components this small and complex... future is going to be wonderful... we could have proton _machine guns_!"

"Slow down, homeboy."- Winston grabbed his shoulder, chuckling.- "We're good with rifles at the moment."

"Lighter weapons would be an excellent improvement."- the physicist distractly commented. He was marvelled at how perfectly that meter had been build. Evie sure had knowledge, brains and excellent mechanical ability. Then his stomach growled, he hadn't eaten anything since morning.

"You should be resting too, Egon. And you should eat."- Ray looked up from the magnifier and frowned at him in worry- "Doctors recommended at least one week of complete rest for you."

Egon felt a tad guilty. He didn't want to tell them why he hadn't felt at all like eating his dinner. Not yet. Not without a good reason. It would have just added more stress. - "I was a bit upset earlier."- he said. It wasn't a complete lie.

It didn't matter how concise his reply, his friends didn't need more words to know that risking to die two days in a row, seeing Janine and Peter be kidnapped and lastly having Janine pass out in his arms were enough for him to be more than 'a bit upset'.

"We all are _very_ upset about what happened in these past days."- Peter put in almost casually, stretching his arms. He didn't want the guy to keep it all inside, he still did that a lot.

Egon understood the deeper meaning behind the psychologist's words and rubbed his own forehead- "Ok, I am really upset."- he conceded- "Not only Evie's meter is broken and we are missing vital informations to device a plan to separate Tolay from the statuette, but also I can't yet properly hold a thrower for more than a few minutes. And it's still not an option to use Janine as extra help."

"It's good Tolay's focused so much on you."- Ray stated as he kept working on disassembling the broken, precious meter- "He still doesn't see her as a key target and that's to our advantage."

"Three of us being targets is troublesome enough."- Winston fidgeted with a screwdriver, deep in thought- "Our priority is to keep Egon, Evie and Janine somewhere safe."- they didn't have anywhere safe enough to protect them, but he didn't want to think about that.

"That won't be necessary."- Egon wanted to slap himself, he had suddenly realized they were in huge advantage. - "If Evie dies, the time paradox we will create will reset her future and nullify her death."

"If you die, Evie will never be born and no time paradox could fix that."- Ray sternly reminded him.

"Not necessarily."- the blond dryly replied, taking off his glasses and massaging the bridge of his nose. Headache was on its way, he needed food.

That information made the other men give him puzzled looks. Then they looked at each other and, realizing the implications behind his concise words, they froze.

"You don't mean..."- Peter was the first to react and darted to his feet, the stool falling because of his movement. What if the 'dream' he had was not just a view of Evie's past? What if...

"Don't tell Janine you know. We mustn't focus our attention on her or Tolay will get suspicious."- Egon drank some water, wondering when their delivery would arrive. It was taking so damn long- "That's also why we won't tell Evie about this."- he looked at them, waiting for them to nod in agreement. They did.

"You'll take Evie's gun, she will wear one of our packs."- Winston suggested the only winning strategy they could afford to minimize damage- "It's gonna be harder to aim, but you'll need only one arm."

"Once we analyze the meter's data I'll modify the gun to interfere with the statuette's energy, then it will be up to you to restrain Tolay and let him meet his past self, destroying both."- Egon knew that plan would have worked. There was only one problem...

"You won't be able to defend yourself if anything goes wrong."- the flaw in Egon's plan was obvious to the occultist, his face turning paler as he spoke. - "If we screw up..."

"We won't screw up."- Peter replied fiercely, he didn't like that plan one bit but realized it was their only good shot- "And no one will die."

* * *

After a quick lukewarm shower to scrub off the slime, Janine proposed the girl to steal some time and have a nice bath. She wanted to have some private time with her, talk to her. Understand her.

Warm water still was a bit too hot on their skin, but it felt great.

The moistness eventually made the plasters on Evie's face start to come loose; she stripped them off delicately and let them fall on the floor one by one. The skin on her jaw, chin and cheek still felt tender and pulled a bit, but it was small damage. About time she got rid of those plasters.

Janine felt Evie pulling her backwards. She ended up resting her back on the girl's chest. It felt warm and her body cried in joy. The bath tube was big enough to accomodate both of them, they just had to keep their knees bent. Comfortable enough.

"It looked like he was having fun, earlier."- Evie decided to talk when they both had gotten used to the water.

Janine laughed a silvery laughter the girl had never heard coming from her mother- "I can't blame him... I sure looked ridicolous."

"Can he do that at such a critical time?"- the girl's voice was a mix of surprise and reproach. She had always imagined that man to be the living definition of the word 'serious'.

"If you asked me two years ago, I'd have surely replied with a 'no'."- the redhead thought back at those embarrassing, cute times when they had just openly admitted being involved with each other. He was so stiff back then. Then slowly something had changed. He had changed a lot.- "Let's say he's an extremely complex person."

Evie fell silent, mulling over those words. She knew so little about that man she used to hate before getting to know he was her biological father. When she had discovered the truth behind her parents' marriage she had felt so ashamed of those feelings...

To Janine the girl's silence was heavier than a thousand rocks. God only knew what the poor thing could have gone through because of her never being able to get over Egon.

"Maybe it's best if you go brainstorm with the guys"- the woman spoke with her eyes closed, relaxing her sore neck.

"I can't be of help anymore."- Evie embraced her, pushing her worries to the back of her mind and leaning her head on Janine's.- "I don't have enough knowledge. Not enough experience. I... I've done all I could."

"Don't be so hard on yourself... you did a lot already."- the redhead rested her arms on the girl's, squeezing her hand.- "We'll get you home. I bet your mom is going crazy right now. I sure would."

The girl laughed at Janine's statement- "Maybe you and Mom aren't that different afterall."

"What am I like in your reality?"- the secretary asked. She wanted to know more about that future self she never would want to become.

"Somewhat cold and thoughtful, and serious all the time. I've always had doubts about my mom's feelings towards me."- Evie confessed, whispering as if speaking those words out loud would be blasphemous- "She and Dad were more like best friends than husband and wife. Nothing like my friends' parents. So as I got older I started to think I was just the unwanted result of a drunk night. She gets those sad eyes sometimes.. when she looks at me."

Janine flinched to those words. She just stayed silent.

"When I discovered that file... when I first read Tolay's name..."- Evie kept whispering, holding tighter to her- "...there was a police report about two men and a pregnant woman surviving the disaster."- she stayed silent for a bit, then resumed talking- "Learning that Dad was not my real dad suddenly made a lot of sense. I... I started to understand you two. Realized how you had sacrificed your lives to raise and protect me... I realized then how much you loved me.."- her voice trailed down as tears welled up in her eyes.

Janine respected her painful silence, holding tighter to her arms. She had no words to comfort her, she could only live to fix her own mistakes. - "Don't cry, darlin'. Our mistakes are not your fault."

"I remember Mom telling me something like that once."- Evie sniffed, rubbing her eyes with one hand. She didn't want to cry anymore.- "That's when I convinced myself she and Dad had a drunk night together while they were still grieving their losses."

"Even if you were Peter's daughter and the result of a drunk night, we'd have sacrificed ourselves for you anyways. We would have done our best to make you happy." - Janine spoke her mind- "You can bet on that."- then a thought passed through her head and she snickered.

"What's so funny?"- the girl let out a small laughter.

"Your mom didn't tell you how she managed to convince Egon to have a kid, did she?"

"I might tell you what I could extort from Dad..."- Evie laughed, leaning her head backwards on the bath tube - "...what do I get in exchange?"

"I'll remember to be lenient on your curfews."- the woman proposed, stretching one leg a bit. Circulation was definitely ok. - "Now shoot."

"Unplanned result of a drunk night."

Janine's guess about how she had gotten pregnant was correct. She laughed again, infecting Evie with her laughter, not noticing the water tainting in brown more and more.

* * *

"Should we get going?"- Janine felt good. Her doubts had been cleared and her head freed of haunting thoughts.

"Yeah. Water's starting to feel cold..."- Evie raised one hand to look at her wrinkled fingertips. - "Ew, my fingers look like dried plums."

"Let's get out, then..."- Janine remembered to move slowly as she sat up, keeping her eyes closed. Then she opened them. The water looked brown. Was there indeed something wrong with her head?- "Please tell me I'm not hallucinating. The water's brown."

"Oh... I'm sorry, my bad."- the girl sounded embarrassed. Janine turned to look at her and yelped in surprise.

Brown was literally dripping off Evie's head, revealing her natural hair color.

"I... I'm allergic to permanent hair dye."- she said apologetically, the now visible dimple on her chin making her pout appear even more dramatic. It was very evident who was the donor of the genes behind that hair and chin. And eyes.

"Lemme guess. Delicate skin?"- Janine sighed. She surely hadn't inherited that from her.

Evie glanced at her, embarrassed, her cheecks turning pinker.

"Let me help you get rid of that dye before you get a rash."- the redhead grabbed the strongest shampoo available and gestured the girl to turn.

A good twenty minutes of hard rubbing later, they were almost done removing the hair dye.

Loud yelps coming out of the bathroom made the men gather in front of it, stick their ears on the wooden door. Water splashed and it sounded like a heated struggle was taking place.

"Only one will survive."- Peter imitated the deep voice of a movie trailer narrator, walking away. They all gave it a good laugh and decided to leave the girls alone to whatever they were doing.


	7. Chapter 7

As faint noises kept coming from the bathroom – those two were taking their sweet time in there, whatever they were doing- Peter convinced Egon to leave the almost completely disassambled meter into Ray's hands and got him downstairs to the dining room to have a proper meal.

For some reason their delivery had taken about one hour to arrive. Blame it on some incompetent delivery boy. They didn't mind: cold food tasted just as good as warm food if it was for free.

"I could have eaten upstairs, you know."- the taller man commented as he sat down and placed his share of chinese junk on the table.

"Ray could take apart that thing blindfolded, he can afford missing you for ten minutes."- Peter replied, copying him and opening the packet containing his chopsticks. - "And you need to get your mind off it for a while."

"I function well under pressure"- Egon remarked, stirring his noodles. They were one unique sticky block of soy. He didn't care and just started eating.

Peter shook his head, sighing. No point in arguing. He dug in his block of rice and ate, observing the other man. The bruises and healing cuts on his face made its paleness even more evident.

"Am I particularly handsome today?"- the blond cocked one eyebrow, aware of his friend perousing his face.

"Ready to win any beauty contest."

They both laughed, enjoying the meal. Coffee time arrived, Peter poured two smoking cups.

"You know, I saw your ghost."- he commenced, blowing on his cup. He had told his friends about his vision, saving that detail for himself.

"My ghost?"- Egon echoed, taking a daring sip. Still too hot.- "Oh, you mean the ghost of the Egon from Evie's timeline."- He sounded intrigued.

"He reminded me 'my' promise."- the brown haired man brought the cup to his mouth and took a long sip. He never took his eyes off Egon's.

"You won't need to honour any promise if our plan goes well."

"I want to promise something else to you."- the man's green eyes darkened, he had been thinking about that for a while. The other waited for him to talk, frowning- "I promise that I will protect you with my life."

Egon frowned some more- "We always risk our lives to protect each other and we don't usually need promises."

Peter put down his mug- "I know we will forget all of this once Tolay will be gone and Evie back to her own home. You must live and be with Evie. Be a better father than the one she had."

"She loves you deeply"- Egon stated, keeping his voice and face neutral. That subject unsettled him more than he would have liked it to.- "She was protecting you the day we found her at the park. She does everything she can to look more like you, to the point of altering her eye colour."- he paused, a flood of insecurity making him lower his face- "If I die, I know she'll be in good hands. Better hands than mine."

"What the hell, Egon."- Peter leaned on the table to raise his friend's chin with his finger. Their eyes met again.- "Don't even go there."

"I... might be more upset than I allowed myself to believe. I'm not ready for it."- the blond admitted. Then he shook his head - "I don't even have idea how..."- he leaned back on the chair.- "...how it happened."- he was referring to himself getting his girlfriend pregnant and not remembering any of it. Really mature of him, acting like some stupid teenager.

"I do remember Janine taking you home one morning."- Peter dared to curl one side of his mouth in a timid grin- "You were passed out on the back seat of her car. I even asked her if she had drugged and raped you."

"Damn..."- Egon groaned, covering his face with his hands. Light suddenly hurt his system as fragmented memories of a particularly eventful friday night came to his mind- "Then I might have a theory." - he let the hands slide off, huffing.

"How it happened, then?"- the psychologist was dead curious about how his friend had ended up so drunk to the point of passing out. It wasn't like at him at all to lose control on himself.

"I thought you knew it all about the birds and the bees."- Egon dared to chuckle, enjoying Peter's dumbfolded look. A foot found his calf under the table, hitting it.

"Not that!"- Peter chuckled too. As much as he could joke about it he really didn't want to know the details of his best friend and their secretary's sex life- "Ya know what I meant!"

"She dragged me to a party with her friends. I got in an argument with that pompous idiot that is the husband of her best friend. He proposed we should settle the matter with a drinking contest." - the blond candidly confessed.- "I accepted. Or rather Janine jumped up saying I could beat him anytime, any field."

"You wouldn't have accepted if you hadn't liked the idea."- Peter commented, smiling amused. He eyed the clock on the wall and stood up to brew more coffee. Upstairs they could have used some - "Who won?"

"I, offcourse."- Egon stood up too, tidying up the table. He wasn't particularly proud of that, but it felt really great to shame that guy.- "Don't ask me what happened after that because I don't really know."

"Sounds like you a great friday night."

* * *

In a few minutes they were in front of the lab. Time to get back to work.

Peter held Egon back before he could open the door- "Spengs."- the tone of his voice left no need for further words.

The man turned to look at him- "It's useless to make promises we won't remember."- his face opened up in a smile- "Whatever happens, I know we'll make the right choices. I trust you."

Peter nodded, holding out a hand.- "And I trust you."

They shook hands, sealing the promise they were making to each other.

Layers of doubt and worry got off their shoulders: walking into the lab felt like walking into another world, one that scared them less.

"That was a fast lunch"- Ray stood from his stool- "You sure you don't want to rest some more, Egon?"

"I'm perfectly restored."- the physicist glanced at Peter, still by his side. They exchanged a smile- "How's our patient?"

The auburn haired man chuckled, gesturing towards the table where the meter's pieces laid neatly lined up and cleaned- "Waiting for a clinical consultation, Doctor."

As Ray and Egon worked together on Evie's meter – they had decided to perform a transplant to save their tiny patient, sacrificing one of their meters- Winston and Peter took care of checking their packs and traps. They worked in silence, talking the strict necessary to work smoothly.

"We're missing one piece here..."- the occultist scratched his head. One single damn piece. As he worked on the new case, Egon had made a wonderful job identifying the internal components and repairing them. They couldn't give up because one damned bit was missing.- "..what could we replace it with?"

"Do you prefer to sacrifice the toaster or the coffee machine?"- the physicist simply asked. It was normal for him to steal vital parts of household appliances to complete his creations when nothing better was available.

"Toasters are cheaper than a good coffee machine."- Winston reminded him. They were about to face a long night, the idea of having to do that without the comfort of a good strong black coffee was just not bearable.

A few more minutes and the innocent toaster was disassembled for a greater cause. They all gathered around the table when the surgery was over.

"The battery is empty, we'll need to plug it in."- Egon broke the silence, the plug in his hand.- "It shouldn't explode if our estimations are correct."

"I just love this job."- Peter groaned, crossing his fingers.

* * *

Hair dried and new clothes worn, the girls were finally ready to join the others.

"Feeling sooo much better."- Janine commented adjusting her hair. She felt reborn. She was finally wearing the clothes she had all the intentions to take out of the laundry machine earlier that morning. As for Evie, she had borrowed another jumpsuit. This time the donor was Winston.

Evie on her part looked as if she was right out of a marathon. - "I...I should have taken along my dye remover..."

"You shouldn't have dyed first place."- the woman let her know as she gave one last retouch to her own hairdo.

"I started dying when I was six."- Evie replied combing her hair. Its waves were still irregular because of the high humidity in the room- "Mom always got sad looking at me. But she didn't get sad looking at Dad. So I decided I wanted to look more like my Dad."

"Oh... Sweetie..."- Janine put down the hair brush and hugged her. They stood like that for a bit, then a beeping noise made them both jump up.

"My baby!" - Evie thought she was going crazy, that meter was broken beyond repair. They stared at each other, then the girl took off and ran out of the bathroom.

"Wai-"- Janine started to say, but knew it was useless. She sighed and followed her with calm, abandoning the bathroom in a disastrous state.

* * *

"That's one lucky meter..."

It was Peter commenting, perched on his chair. The slim blonde hurricane caught them unprepared, breaking into the room and holding the meter to her chest as if it was her first-born.

"My cheatsheets are safe!"- The girl jubilantly cried, pressing her fingertips on the meter's buttons. Most of the data she stored in it was safe and sound.

Egon turned to glare at Peter. Peter couldn't help but stifle a laughter, making him sigh and smile.

They observed her as she kept her face down to look at the meter's screen. It wasn't as highly defined as before, but it was readable.

Janine passed by her, shaking her head and letting go a small giggle. She found her boyfriend's arms and leaned with her back on his chest; he welcomed her as he looked at the little show offered by the girl with an amused look on his face.

"Nice hair, little sister."- Winston waited till she was a bit calmer to speak his mind. He hadn't imagined that also her hair had been altered; brown hair was a common colour afterall.

Evie stopped spazzing over her toy and looked at him.

Without plasters her face looked... different. She wasn't just a taller Janine with wrongly coloured eyes and hair anymore. She looked a lot like a smaller Egon of the wrong gender right now.

The general shape of her face looked a lot like her mother's but that was one of those cases where it isn't hard to tell who the father is.

"You're looking weird at me again."- she huffed, making her chin wrinkle in a pout once again.- "Is it because of my hair?"- she added, touching it.

"Are you also a boy or..."- Egon suppressed a yelp when Janine poked his ribcage with her elbow.

"Don't do that!"- Evie laughed: she had seen her mother do the same several times to her father in the past. - "It's fine, I would be wondering too at this point. I had decided to wear the ski mask because I wasn't sure I wanted you to see my face, that's true. But I swear that green lenses and brown hair are my everyday look. I didn't mean to fool you guys."- everyone got serious around her, especially Janine. Evie crossed her arms and added, faking a resigned tone- "Being a blonde might be frustrating at school."

"Saving the news for graduation day?" - Ray could just picture her throwing cap and wig away. He didn't mind steering off the conversation towards a less serious one.

"I need to record that idea."- she grabbed her meter and quickly pressed its buttons, entering the menu and then searching for the recording mode. Her eyes widened. The monitor signaled a file called 'From mama'.- "Oh, God."

"What's wrong?" - Janine walked to her side: her hands were shaking.- "Evie?"

The girl looked at her, then at her meter- as if to check she wasn't hallucinating.- "My mom recorded a message on my meter the day I left."

The redhead turned to look at the others, not sure how to act - "Want us to leave you alone?"

"N-No."- the girl's eyebrows knitted- "This meter is nothing like the other ones the team has. It's my personal one, no one is allowed to touch it without my permission... And it's not like Mom at all to use any meter, especially to record messages." - she placed the meter at the centre of the table, sitting at the head of it. - "Let's all sit down and listen, it might be useful to all of us."

Everyone edged closer, sitting down- their stomachs knotting. A message from Janine's disappearing future self. What could have it been like?

As Peter pushed his chair closer to Evie's, Egon pulled Janine against him, passing his arms around her waist; she mentally thanked him and her hands searched for his. When Evie placed her finger on the 'play' button, Janine's nails dug into her boyfriend's hand out of pure anticipation.

"We're ready when you are, Evie."- Winston said, feeling as if he was in the dentist's chair, waiting to get a hole drilled somewhere in his mouth. Without anesthesia.

The girl nodded and a faint beeping noise signaled that the button had been pushed.

Static came out of the in-built speaker for a couple of long seconds. Then the familiar voice could be clearly heard. - "Hi, love. Mama here."- the voice sounded hoarse - "I know you're plotting to travel back in time."

Evie was startled, letting out a yelp. Her mother knew.

"I won't stop you, I know if there is someone able to fix this, that person is you. I believe in you."- Evie's mother's voice sounded clearer.- "You know I can't come with you, if I met my old self I would disappear. So please forgive me for letting you go alone... and be careful." - more static as the talker chose her words- "I've put a floppy disk in your belt. I bet you didn't even notice, did you?"

Everyone looked at Evie taking off her belt and searching it madly as her mother kept talking.

The voice paused for a short bit- "When you get there go straight to the firehouse and give Ray and Egon the disk. They'll know what to do with it."- a noise came from somewhere, making the person holding the meter move. The speaker cackled in static once again. - "In case it's you guys listening to this recording..."- a faint sob could be heard, as if the woman had put a hand on her mouth to hold it back.

The men shifted uncomfortably on their seats. The knot holding their stomachs had just become a really complex and hard to untie one. Janine dug her nails deeper, biting her lip not to cry. Her recorded voice echoed in her ears, sinking in her as thousands knifes; it was almost unbearable.

"I loved you guys. Also if paychecks sucked and the job was dirty, I loved you with all my heart. I don't want to go through this again. I don't want her to suffer because of our mistakes anymore."- her voice got steady again and she let out a nervous chuckle- "God, this is hard. Just... just fry that bastard. And Peter..."

The psychologist mentally braced himself. He didn't know much about Evie's parents' relationship, so he didn't know what to expect. The message had been recorded a few hours away from 'his' funeral. What to expect? An awkward love declaration? She was his widow afterall...

"...you'll need to give me a damn good raise once it's all over."

With a heartfelt little giggle, the registration ended and the device beeped, the monitor going on standby - letting an astonished silence fall on the room.

"She got you by the balls, Dr. V."- Janine kept biting her lip, the urge to laugh stronger than the need to cry.

Eventually managing to dig out the slightly damaged floppy from a side pocket she never used, Evie got aware of her surroundings again, realizing everyone was laughing madly. That was one weird bunch of people.

* * *

"It's 4 already."- Janine glanced at the clock. She was comfortably laid up on the couch, her calves resting on Peter's thighs.

He patted her shins - "We still have about 12 hours before another portal can be opened, don't worry."

The firehouse was unnaturally silent. Evie and Winston had decided to go sleep after the girl had explained Egon and Ray how her gun worked; they would have taken the first guarding shift that night.

"Peter..."- the redhead shifted a bit to rest her neck more comfortably on the pillow. She couldn't help chuckling, giving a good hint about what she was about to ask.

"No, I wasn't expecting promises of undying love from that tape."- he snorted, playing with her toes.

"But yours is the only name she named."- She wriggled her toes, staring at the ceiling as she got lost in her thoughts. Falling in love with one of her bosses was clicheed enough. Burying him and then falling for his best friend sounded even more clicheed.

"Don't think so hard about it, Big J."- Peter squeezed her ankle. Life's unpredictable, isn't it?

Silence again, she kept staring at the celing as he looked at the turned off TV screen. So many thoughts, so hard to grasp them. It felt as if they were evanescent butterflies flying scattered around the room, no net available to capture any of them.

"Peter..."- she started again. She had called his name a tad too many times that day. She didn't feel like using nicknames.

"Yup, that's my name."- he replied, unable to guess her thoughts.

"I don't want this Evie to disappear."- Janine's voice got tinier, as if she didn't want anyone to hear- "She's so sweet and loving." - and smart, brave, reckless, hurt, bubbly. A flood of adjectives could have been used to describe that frail (yet strong) young woman.- "It feels like she'll die the moment she'll go back to her time."- she didn't want to forget her. But they would have, that's how time-travelling works.

"I don't want her to go myself."- he leaned his head backwards on the backrest- "She's our child afterall. She won't be once it's all over."- he inhaled deeply, conscious of how wrong his words felt- "But it's for her best. Parents should always do what's best for their kids, shouldn't they?"

"It hurts. It hurts right here."- she rested her joined hands on the center left part of her chest, about where the heart is.

He placed his hand over hers.- "Her future will be just fine, it can't be otherwise. Now we have to protect her past."

"We're getting too sentimental."- she smiled, glancing towards the staircase. She could see a pair of socks-clad feet on a step- "And we're being spied on."

Peter followed her eyes, noticing the spy's feet- "Can't sleep?"

Evie walked down the spiraled staircase, looking guilty.- "I-I'm sorry."- she stammered- "I didn't mean to... I wanted to talk to you, but I didn't want to interrupt."

Janine sat up, patting the cushion beside her to invite the girl to sit down.

She obeyed in silence, sitting between them. - "We often sit together on the couch, watching TV."- she commented, thinking back to those lost times, a smile curling up her lips- "I've always had fun with you."

"Is this a goodbye, baby?"- Peter dared to caress her hair. It was so soft.

"I loved you deeply, but I don't want you to go through all of that again."- she uttered, quoting her mother's words from the recording. - "I want to thank you, Dad."- she looked at him, barely holding back tears. She knew it was her last time calling him 'dad'.- "I... I didn't have a chance to say goodbye. I didn't even say goodbye to Mom, I thought she was sleeping when I left."- she paused, standing up to face them both- "So I want to thank you for everything."

"No need to thank us, darling."- Janine stood up aswell and embraced the crying girl. She knew they would do it all over again if needed. At any cost, they would have protected her.

It was getting ways too sentimental, but Peter shrugged it off. He stood up aswell and joined in the hug, freeing them after a minute or two. Enough crying was enough- "Ya know, we're going to have much more fun when I'll be your dear Uncle Pete."

Evie couldn't help but laugh as the redhead detached from her to slap Peter's arm.

* * *

As they were the only ones able to take care of that analysis, Ray and Egon had locked themselves up in the lab, letting the others get some deserved rest. The contents of the floppy disk revealed to be a goldmine and spared them the long and tedious task of finding a way to extract the data from Evie's meter – incompatible to their equipment.

The computer's processor buzzed lightly as it elaborated the data. Complex graphics appeared on the monitor when the program completed its task, revealing them the correct wave frequency to beat Tolay.

"This is too good to be true."- Ray breathed, his eyes glued to the computer's monitor. He patted his friend's shoulder before grabbing it and giving it a squeeze- "Hurry up and marry that woman. She's awesome."

Egon couldn't help but agree, reaching for Evie's gun to modify it- "I know, Ray. I know."

* * *

"It's going to take us hours to mod this gun."- Ray passed judgement after a first examination of the device under a magnifying lent.- "I'll have to take apart this piece here..."- he tapped the hand-grip- "... this is a wonderful weapon, but it shows Evie's missing a lot of knowledge."

"Its proton stream is not meant to be altered, I see what you mean."- Egon agreed with his colleague- "Once we modify this gun we won't be able to revert it unless we disassemble it again."

"Modifying one of our proton packs won't be enough, we need more power."- Ray scratched his forehead- "I'll work on your exoskeleton suit while you take care of this."

Time passed and a digital clock beeped, it was 5:30 pm. Egon worked with care, completely absorbed by his task.

As Ray repaired the suit and planned how to increase its resistance he often looked at the physicist's back. He felt as if he had his friend's life in his hands. He knew it was not just a feeling.

* * *

Evie and Winston dined together at 9pm – he kept his promise and offered her the meal. Sadly they couldn't go to a restaurant, but the girl was happy just because he had remembered.

It looked more like a playdate than a guard shift; they killed time watching some movies. Evie's meter on the coffee table and two packs ready by their sides, they enjoyed their evening together.

Busy insulting the busty blonde actress that had decided to run up the stairs -and not out of the door towards almost certain safety- they barely noticed midnight come and pass.

"I've never watched this movie. Does this idiot die in the end?"- Evie was torturing the coloured straw with her teeth as she sucked some coke.

"Offcourse she'll die."- he replied, shaking his can a bit to check how much coke he had left- "She's the blonde babe."

"HEY!"- the girl poked his shoulder, faking an offended face.

As they laughed it off, heavy footsteps approached the spiraled staircase: it was Ray and Egon taking downstairs two of their packs.

"Now, that was long."- Evie commented (it was past 2am), going to help them place all the four packs in a neat row against the wall.

"We'll have to teach you how to install a wave modulator on your gun."- Egon massaged his left arm, sore from the work. God, he felt tired.

Winston grabbed him before he could fall when he stumbled on the loose straps of one pack. - "Let me get you to the couch." - he simply said, steering him in the right direction.

"Thanks."- the blond didn't even try to argue, he had reached his physical limit.

"I'll go get the other suits and..."- Ray started but was stopped by Winston.

"I'll go get them, you need to rest right now."

"Is this a private party?"- Peter's sleepy voice came from the staircase right before his legs appeared. He couldn't sleep at all. He rubbed his eyes as he walked, yawning.

"Can't sleep?"- the occultist asked, choosing to sit down on the nearest armchair.

"Nope"- the brown haired man stepped aside to let Winston and Evie go upstairs. He decided to sit down on the couch, making the lying physicist bend his knees to accomodate him. -"Is everything ready?"

No response from the exhausted man.

"We should get him to bed."- Egon whispered. He was so tired he wasn't even sleepy.

"You should be in bed too."- the other man made him notice, stealing a sip from one of the cans that had been left on the coffee table.

"Not sleepy."- Egon let out a frustrated sigh.

Peter wearily stretched his arms- "You try and get some rest, I'll keep watch."

The blond gave up and nodded, closing his eyes. He fell asleep without even realizing it.

Peter waited for the man and the girl to come down the staircase and helped them put the folded suits on the desk of the study area. They made as little noise as possible not to disturb the sleeping duo. The movie was still on. Evie's attention was caught by the blonde on screen finally ending in the killer's hands. She slid over the couch's armrest and occupied the spot that earlier was Peter's.

"Cool..."- she breathed, taken by the gruesome scene.

Peter and Winston looked at each other and decided to sit down in front of the couch. That killer was really good at handling chainsaws.

Another half hour passed and the babe was successfully slaughtered together with her group of friends. The ending credits started rolling but Evie wasn't watching anymore. Minutes earlier she had crouched on the cushion and turned to look at the man sleeping curled up on the couch; one his hands was dangling down. She slid off the couch, kneeling down and crawling towards that hand, making the two crouching men turn to look at her.

She stopped in front of the object of her interest, holding it with both her hands. Observing its palm she realized she was looking at a bigger version of her own hands. Letting the hand go, she tilted her head to take a better look at his face.

"Studying the enemy while he's asleep?" - Winston whispered, turning off the television.

"I used to hate him before I got to know the truth behind my parent's past."- she whispered back- "Then I just felt so sad. And guilty."

Peter wasn't sure he could find words to comfort her without resorting to a set phrase. He put a hand on her back- "It doesn't matter anymore. I'm sure you two will get along and blow up a lot of stuff together."

She held back a laughter, covering her mouth with her hand. Opening her eyes again when the fit was over, she got aware of the fact that a set of identical eyes were looking back at her.

Evie avoided that look for a second, biting her lip. Then raised one hand and waved it - "How do you do?"

"How do you do?"- Egon replied, his lips curling up in a lazy smile. He felt a bit akward.

"Feel better?"- she asked, eyeing the shadows under his eyes- "Want a coffee? A tea?"

"I have a better idea."- he pushed himself up on his elbows.

* * *

Soon enough they all were gathered up around the table, sipping on hot chocolate – the meter placed in front of them. Now it faintly beeped, signaling that soon enough another portal would open more or less where the previous ones were.

Waiting had become nerve breaking. Two hours to go.

As tired as he could be, Ray had managed to nap no more than thirty minutes. He finished his cup of chocolate and put his folded arms on the table, resting his face on them - "I'm beat. I wish he would just come already."

"Time is almost up. "- Egon reminded him, checking his wristwatch. He took the last sip from his mug and set it on the table.- "We should wear the exoskeleton suits. I'll go get Janine, it's better if we all spend this last hour in the same room." - he realized too late how ambiguously his thought was translated in words by his brain. - "...you know what I mean."- he hastily added but it was too late.

The gloomy feeling lurking on them became even stronger as he excused himself.

While he was gone, they helped each other getting in the cumbersome suits.

The wall clock's minute hand was on 25. Thirtyfive minutes to go.

"This thing is uncomfortable..."- Janine moaned, entering the room. She had changed into her jumpsuit: the fabric was tight on her chest because of the bulky protective layer underneath pressing on her breasts.

"Join the club."- Peter groaned, feeling the rough fabric offend his skin. It itched so bad.

Egon walked in the dining room shortly after her, Evie's gun in his hand. He sat back on his chair and turned the weapon over and over in his hands, checking if everything was ok.

"What's the plan?"- Evie asked, getting the feeling she wouldn't have gotten to use her gun in the final showdown.

Ray laid out the plan for them with the aid of a map of the area- "...that's all."- he concluded- "If it's ok for you, Winston, you should stick to Evie and keep an eye on her."- he waited for the man to nod- "And Evie, I'll show you how to use the pack in case we'll need to modify the streams."

The girl's back went rigid. No gun for her. She never had used a proton pack like the one they had. The packs used by the new team were a lot different.- "O-ok."- she nodded- "I'll do my best."

"Janine, if you feel up to it, you should come too."- Egon stopped fidgeting with the gun. He wasn't comfortable with guns. Not as much as with rifles. He was even less comfortable with the idea of his pregnant girlfriend joining the team and seriously risking to get herself killed, but they didn't have much of a choice.

Peter silently agreed. He had been awfully silent all along, trying to sort out the mixed feelings raging inside him – he figured they were pretty much the same the others were feeling. The situation required a cold and rational plan, no room for other worries.

If Tolay outpowered them there would have been no future at all.

"Sure thing."- the redhead's lips pressed together in determination - "I won't go down without fighting."

"Ray could give you his pack and use the destabilizer instead."- the physicist reviewed the plan in his mind, rearranging its elements- "I'm still Tolay's main target, he will concentrate on me. Three of you will distract him by firing at the portal, two will back me up. I will take the chance and fire."

Ray looked at him, then at Janine, then back at him again.- "If I were to use the destabilizer on the portal it could close. Peter and I will keep you covered."

"So I will be in company of our two fine ladies."- Winston stated. Janine wasn't trained but she was cautious and experienced enough to be able to care for herself. Evie... she was unpredictable. He was glad he would have another person with him watching over the girl.- "We'll try to stay away from him and get a clear shot at the portal."

"Let's get going."- Peter stood up, he didn't want to wait anymore.

* * *

When Ecto was parked barely inside the restricted area it was still early for the sun to rise - yet a ghastly smear of deep red was starting to light up the sky over Central Park.

Peter almost envied the countless number of cops that had gathered there to keep anyone from entering the whole park. Dealing with frightened, curious or just plain crazed people sounded so much easier than being the ones to take the demon out. He stepped out of the car and breathed in the cold air. The thought that his own birthday was approaching gave him a good enough reason to remember to exhale and wear his pack. Glancing around his brain registered the growing crowd encouraging them. He didn't feel like it, but he put up his best smile and turned to face their public, waving. He even had the guts to tell them to sit back and enjoy the show.

It felt more and more like a normal bust; at least as normal as a bust involving a demigod or any other entity able to erase half of the city at its will could be.

"That feels better."- Ray commented from his seat, noticing Peter being more and more like his usual self again. He'd been so silent so often those past hours. - "I kinda feel better myself."

"Hey, Ray..."- Evie's voice made him turn and his hand let go of the door handle. The girl pressed the fingertips of her index fingers on the sides of her own mouth, pushing them up in a smile- "Everything's better when you smile."

To her words he found the strenght to smile. It started as a simple curling up of his mouth, but seeing her eyes light up made him feel a warmth inside he had stopped feeling those past days.

It wasn't like him to be so dark. He wasn't sure why she had said those words to him (was it just an advice to please their audience given by an athlete used to perform or was that girl able to read through him?) but it didn't matter.

The man behind the wheel was able to tell what had just happened in his friend's head and patted his shoulder, feeling better himself - "Let's go say hello."

They got out of the car, armed themselves and joined the psychologist still playing peacock in front of the crowd.

Left alone on the backseat of Ecto, the couple knew they could only steal a few moments. Janine's lips parted a couple of times as she searched for the right words to say, wasting much of the little time they had.

The man leaned over to kiss her on her lips, startling her.

"You know, you just missed your kissing cue, Janine."- Egon quoted her words from their last date.

She chuckled and shook her head, admitting defeat.

Hand in hand they joined the others.


	8. Chapter 8

Night sky tainting more and more in red, the familiar agglomerate of blue was already forming 8 feet over the ground, a bit higher than the spot the first portal opened.

The team walked to where it all started, adrenaline already rushing in their systems and erasing tiredness, worries and doubts.

Winston talked as they went, defining the final positions to take. No one objected, he was the most suitable one to finalize their strategy.

They stopped when they were close to where the ground had been split open. The uprooted trees laid where they had originally fallen and it made them feel a strong dejavu sensation.

"Let's split up before the portal opens."- Egon touched the gun from over his side pocket.

"Wait, take this..."- Evie took off her belt and passed it around the man's waist, extended the nylon strap enough to fit him. - "It's gonna be safer to keep the gun in the holster."

He waited till she was done and put the gun into its holster - "Thank you, Evie. I'll give it back as soon as we're done."- he couldn't find any good word to reassure her, he still felt so awkward around her. He settled for placing a hand on her head. She felt like wagging her invisible tail and giggled.

A roar came from the sky, so loud and sudden that it made Evie scream in surprise and seek cover in the taller man's arms. He held her as the ground shook, ignoring the meters going crazy from inside their pockets. - "Everyone power up. He's here."

To his words, the girl held on tighter- suddenly paralyzed by a wave of adrenaline and the powerful urge to run away as fast as legs could carry her.

The portal turned to purple, then started to shine of a red light. A few seconds to the battle.

Peter and Ray got closer to Egon, Winston gestured Janine to stand by him. They had to get in place, fast. Just Evie's feet wouldn't move.

The physicist got aware of it and forgot about his own mixed feelings; gently detaching her from himself and holding her face in his hands he looked straight in her eyes- "Listen to me. It's going to be alright." - he leaned over until his lips were real close to her ear. He had to whisper to her something his brain couldn't yet acknowledge.

Her eyes widened to that confession but she didn't have time to say anything. He already had pushed her into Winston's arms.

"Let's go, kid."- Winston held her hand and dragged her away, running to take position under the trees. Janine followed them without looking back: no need for last minute goodbyes.

Alone in front of the portal, the three men watched Tolay's body emerge from the red portal.

"Stand back, Big Guy. We don't need him to have a clear shot at you." - Peter's voice was stern, nervousness starting to kick back. Egon obeyed, taking a couple steps backwards.

"Long time no see, fleas."- the demon's voice rumbled from over their heads. From behind him three more of the gargoyle-like creatures flew out of the interdimensional gap.- "My servants are very unhappy of you defeating their brothers. I promised them I will not slay them if they keep you out of my way."

"How generous."- Peter's face contracted as he muttered those words, folds forming between his eyebrows as he frowned. Those flying bastards were fast and powerful enough to be a treath to their fight plan.

"Three versus three will be incredibly delighting."- Tolay resumed talking, moving his empty eyes to look at Peter and Ray- "That, offcourse could be avoided if you gave up your friend."

That made them realize the entity wasn't yet aware of their companions hiding.

A soft voice came out from their walkie-talkies- "Keep em busy." - it was Winston suggesting a b-plan.

Ray glanced at his two friends. They silently agreed, nodding. Time to start running.

"No way we'll hand him over."- Peter yelled to make his voice clearly audible to the demon. To make his intentions clear he fired at the gargoyle hovering closer to them, soon joined by the occultist. The other two flying entities screeched in rage, diving to attack them.

The trio split up, one trap thrown to bust their first destabilized prey.

"Either he didn't sense us, or he's playing dumb."- Evie whispered from her hiding place.

"He probably imagines you and me are hiding somewhere." - Winston replied, glancing over the bushes to follow the battle taking place. Egon was running too, holding the empty trap that once was hooked to Peter's pack. He couldn't fire but he could help his colleagues trapping the two leftover class 5. Busy firing at them, it was impossible for the two men to properly watch over him.- "You girls move as silently as you can. When you're distant enough I'll go help them."

"We'll hide over there."- Janine pointed at a kiosk about 30 feet away.

"You'll have a good chance to shoot at the portal from the top of it."- the man nodded, getting ready to join his fellows- "Now go!"

He waited for the women to be hiding behind the wooden kiosk before jumping out of the bushes and firing just in time to prevent the second gargoyle to escape his friends' streams.

Two down, one to go.

* * *

Tolay observed the whole fight without moving. He knew that young female was being kept hidden somewhere nearby, but he didn't bother about searching for her. He also knew that those foolish gargoyles were no match to the Ghostbusters, but he wanted to make the game longer and more interesting. He only needed to take one of them out, he was confident he wouldn't have failed. _Humans are fragile beings_, he thought.

"He won't move from the portal."- Evie said from behind gritted teeth- "He won't make that mistake again."

"Unless we give him a good motive to..."- Janine poked her head from behind the kiosk. The last flying bastard revealed to be a hard one to catch.

"If you have a better plan other than just running out there, it's time to speak it."- the girl huffed, seeing no ways to achieve their goal.

"Do you still have your mask thingie and the cloak?"- the redhead had a wild plan.

"My balaclava and hooded cloak?"- Evie was baffled- "Y-yeah... I left those in the car...why..?"

"Ghostbusting 101: these entities are usually plain idiot."- Janine took off her pack and started unzipping her jumpsuit- "If we're fast enough, I can fool him. I'll wear your clothes and the mask."

Evie copied her without thinking much about it- "Then what? You'll do what?"

"I'll pose as you and try to piss him off."- the woman tried not to lose her balance as she quickly got out of her boots- "You'll come out too and we'll confuse him. Then someone will hopefully fire at the portal."

"You're completely insane..."- Evie put on Janine's jumpsuit and watched her get ready. She thought that it was funny how the guys were all about keeping her under control when the loose cannon was their secretary instead.

"Now run and go get me your stuff, quick!"

The girl obeyed, hoping she could think of a better plan as she ran.

* * *

Winston joining them was of great help. That last flunky was really fast and giving them a hard time.

Peter cursed as the flying entity escaped once again their streams. It was ridicolous of them to be wasting time busting it, but they couldn't let it roam freely. Tolay surely had prepared that little match to tire them. Or to be sure they all came out to play with him.

The gargoyle couldn't get far because a stream caught him.

The person firing was masked by a torn black cloak, her face covered by a black mask. It was obvious to the four men that it was Janine disguised as Evie. They imagined the girls had come out with a plan of their own and played along, working together to win that game.

Tolay didn't seem to notice the difference in height and physical structure and roared as she helped trapping his last minion.

Janine remembered what the guys told her about their first encounter with Evie and made her acting even more convincing by jumping in front of them, holding out Evie's spare trap.

"You want to die first, I see...you wretched child..."- the demon raised his hand to charge up his energy. That damned girl wanted to challenge him yet again. His determination to blast her made him step away from the portal.

"Fire!"- It was the real Evie yelling as she ran out of her hiding spot behind the kiosk. She couldn't believe Tolay had fallen for that stupid trick.

Time to go back to their a-plan. Winston and Janine fired at the portal, their streams joining Evie's.

Egon extracted the gun from its holster and ran closer to Tolay, Peter and Ray hot on his heels.

The gun needed to be fired at a really close range to be efficient to the max.

Fighting to resist to the portal getting unstable starting to pull him in, Tolay got aware of the three men getting close a moment before Egon could take a clear shot at him. The man's bodyguards acted as fast: while Peter dived to get him to the ground and shield him and his precious weapon, the occultist managed to shoot a precise stream with the destabilizer, nullifying the demon's powerful beam of energy. Just that weapon had never been planned to absorb anything and couldn't protect its user from the heavy shock wave. Hitting the back of his head on the ground many feet away, Ray lost his senses.

From where he laid, the physicist tried to shoot at the demon. He was slightly too far, but he hoped to paralyze him long enough - "Someone help him!"- he yelled, seeing Tolay writhe and squirm to evade.

Winston's legs carried him really fast to where the unmoving man laid sprawled. He wasn't bleeding and could breathe fine but wouldn't wake up. The pack on his shoulders was heavier than an ordinary one, making it too troublesome to drag his dead weight away. Winston worked as fast as he could to unfasten the belt of the device. It had got damaged in the explosion and was stuck.

Peter stood up at once and fired at the portal, covering up for Winston's missing stream.- "He can't use that power anymore!"- seeing Tolay unsuccessfully trying to accumulate more energy to try and blast them again, the man dared to hope they were about to get rid of him - "It's working!"

Summoning every drop of his own power, the demon could take a step towards the group of attackers. Swinging his long arm, he slapped Janine's thrower off her hands. The modified wave running through his body hurt her unprotected hands, making her jump back - losing her balance and falling down on her butt.

To her painful scream, Egon stopped firing – he feared the modified proton stream had passed through her as electricity would do – and called out her name. She took off the mask, quickly letting them know she was fine. Her hands looked mildly burned and they hurt like crazy but she pushed that to the back of her mind. Not a serious wound afterall.

Not being restrained anymore Tolay took his chance to act, eager to play one of his beloved games.

Before Evie could realize it, an enormous hand had folded around her waist and lifted her up.

Peter stopped firing too, one stream wasn't enough to disturb the portal and would have only endangered the girl. He gestured Janine to get away and stood beside his blond friend as he got back up to stand in front of the entity.

Something had changed in Tolay, he stood still in front of the duo – Evie squirming in his hand to break free. - "You have one chance to fire."- Tolay's eternal grin infinitesimally moved- "Know she dies the moment you do."- he added, holding the struggling girl right in front of his chest.

The gun once again aimed at the demon threatened to tremble in Egon's hand but he held on to it as strongly as he could, his knuckles going white. His other hand was clutching Evie's trap containing the other Tolay; it was totally useless now that he couldn't separate the statuette's power from the demon's. The gun's stream barely grazed Janine and burned her. It was as lethal as a normal proton stream, if not more.

The physicist didn't move, just held the gun aimed at that enormous chest.

"You humans and your petty feelings are so useless."- Tolay squeezed Evie enough to make her lunghs unable to expand for a couple of painfully long seconds.

Egon knew that Peter was right beside him, his hands clutching the rifle. When the demon spoke those words, the man's hands moved to raise his rifle again.

The blond's neurones connected really fast the unintentional help Tolay had given him to the purpose of his modded gun. He lifted his left arm to stop the psychologist from firing.

Human feelings. She was his daughter. They shared the same blood.

"What's going on in that head of yours?"- Peter's voice was alarmed seeing his best friend's eyes twinkle behind his ruined red glasses.

"Pray that my guess is correct."- Egon replied without looking at him, his finger sliding over the trigger to pull it.- "It can't harm my daughter, Tolay!" - he yelled, sending a clear message to the girl.

She understood what his idea was. If their kin had any power over Chrono's statuette, there was a chance the stream wouldn't have hurt her. - "Fire!"- she cried, a determined look on her face as she covered her head with her arms- "Kill him!"

The man held his breath and pulled the trigger.

* * *

Pain made Evie bite her lip enough to pierce it with her teeth not to scream but she never closed her eyes. Touching her own lips, she saw blood smearing her fingertips. She realized she was still alive.

The demon's body was shining in bright gold, a tiny silvery glow now visible about where the heart should be. Stretching her arms, she tried to reach that silvery spot. The shape of the statuette depicting an old man was becoming more and more visible.

"Chronos!"- she cried, desperate. If the gun hadn't killed her, she didn't know what would have happened to her when the two Tolays would meet. Her long lost father believed they had power over that manufact. Ray too had said something similar. She trusted them.- "Father Time, I beg of you!"

A bright white light drowned her. It was her trap's light, she could feel the pressure of its power on her back, just like a strong wind.  
Tolay's unholy yell as he met his past self was the last sound she could hear.

White light turning to deep black, she lost her senses. She could never see the blood on her fingers react, glowing faintly.

* * *

Time had stopped, literally. Birds were frozen midair with their wings spread, the first drops of a rain storm just hanged several feet over the ground.

"Wha..."- Egon started to say, but got aware that Peter was frozen beside him, his eyes closed and one arm shielding them. The taller man pressed his fingers against the veins in his friend's neck: the pulse was strong. Definitely a case of suspended animation. He glanced around. To his far right, Janine still sat curled up on the ground, her head lifted to endlessly stare at the spot where the demon had disappeared. To his left he could see Winston's back as he shielded Ray with his body. The cord connecting his rifle to the proton pack and the collar of his jumpsuit had gotten frozen in time as they fluttered because of the explosion.

New York City's voice couldn't be heard anymore. All was still, but Egon could move.

Evie was laying where once the demon stood. Unmoving. Why wasn't she moving if he could?

It wasn't hard to understand why. The empty trap fell from his hands as his body moved forwards to run to her. He bent his knees and his hands found her neck and chest. No beating from inside her barely soft, still childlike chest.

He didn't even feel like screaming although his cells prompted him to. What's the point of doing so if no one can help you?

The man fell to his knees and gathered her up in his arms – she was still warm. Her head rolled to lean on his chest because of his movements, her neck so unnaturally limp.

The time paradox should have protected her from dying. But then again, that was only a theory. A terribly wrong one.

"I find humans so beautiful. So frail, yet able to feel emotions so strong."

The voice made Egon look up. A pretty ordinary looking old man in a worn out brown suit was standing in front of him, caressing his own white long beard. His shoulders were arched onwards, deformed by age. - "I'd like my statuette back if it's not an issue."

The physicist followed the direction of the old man's eyes. Evie's hands were still clutching the small, ugly manufact.

"You can have it."- Egon uttered, no strenght left in him. He delicately opened Evie's fingers and took the manufact in his hand. It resumed glowing faintly.

The tiny old man recognized him as a descendant of that honest poor peasant he once helped. World had changed so much.

"You could ask me to revive her."- the god commented, holding the statuette in one hand.

The exhausted man couldn't find the words to reply to that. It hurt even more than when his own father had died. It hurt so much to lose that daughter his future self never got to meet. They could barely stop Tolay. What if that powerful item had ended up into the hands of a demigod? Evie would have preferred him to prevent anything like her past from happening again. He was sure of it. But he couldn't let her die. It was his fault for not correctly comprehending the dynamics of time paradoxes. He had to make up for his mistake.

The god could listen to the inner monologue going on in the mortal man's mind. He was delighted at the complexity of those feelings he could never completely understand. He smiled, unseen.

"I will grant her wish."- Chronos said as the manufact merged into his body- "She asked not to be forgotten."

Egon looked at the form of the god slowly start to glow dimly. Chronos read his toughts with ease, sorting out the emotions the man could barely stand.

"You did not kill her, mortal, for she is not dead."- the god kneeled down in front of him and rested his hand on Evie's forehead. - "She doesn't belong to this time frame. I need to take her home."

"What's going on?"- the incredible weight keeping Egon's throat pressed close was lifted and he finally managed to get his voice to come out. If he could start resorting again to logical thinking (is there even a logic in magic?) he was sure he could start sorting out the storm inside him aswell.

"This old man needed a help to be reunited with that missing piece of himself."- the god innocently replied.

So Chronos needed to be allowed to use the catalyst of his powers. How unusual for such a powerful and ancient god. Was that a curse? If he used his wish to break the curse...

"You are one smart human." - the god of Time read Egon's thoughts and smiled, revealing yellow crooked teeth.

* * *

"You really ticked her off earlier"- Peter casually slipped in during dinner. That omelette surely was one of their worst culinary experiments.

Egon looked blankly at him. He already had lived that moment. Had Chronos reset time to before the girl's time travelling trip started? He couldn't remember her name.

"W...we'll think about that later, Peter."- he ran off the room to go check the equipment in his lab.

All gone. No PKE hyperactivity. The graphics depicting the PKE city levels were as flat as an ironing board. - "We made it."- he breathed.

"He doesn't seem to be possessed..."- Ray commented from the door, holding a meter in his hand.

That weird dejavu sensation they had been having all day just stopped. Winston was feeling somewhat uncomfortable. Something felt wrong. To Egon's words he frowned- "We … made it...?"

"You... don't you remember anything?"- Egon copied Winston's frown - "We already lived this day. To be exact we already lived the week to come."

His friends looked at him as if he had just stripped off and started dancing on the table.

"We defeated Tolay." - he replied to their baffled looks.

Peter's face went pale. Forgotten memories had just violently pushed their way into his head. - "...What was her name..."- he passed one hand through his hair- "...that girl..."

"Is she alright?"- Ray suddenly remembered the bright expression on her face as she pushed upwards the corners of her mouth, suggesting him to smile. It felt like looking at a photograph from many years past: coloured in sepia and fading at the edges.

"...the last thing I remember was an explosion of light. It happened when her Tolay met ours."- the Winston thought aloud, sitting down on the nearest stool. - "...then... then I woke up this morning."

Egon gestured them to sit down, claiming a stool for himself- "When we succesfully achieved to cause the paradox, time stopped for everyone but me and the girl."

"So you really had control over Chrono's statuette!"- Ray's excitement about the paranormal was back to normal.

Egon produced a little smile of relief at those enthusiastic words. He cleared his voice and told them about his encounter with Father Time. That was the only part he remembered pretty clearly.

As they talked, he got aware that he too had troubles remembering what had happened before that.

"We all can't recall her name. What else?"- Peter's head hurt. He remembered reading his own surname on the girl's jumpsuit but that was about it. If he tried to remember further he'd feel a sharp pain. - "My head's killing me..."- he massaged his temples. - "I can't remember much about her tastes or her personality. I barely remember her face."

"It's evident our memories are blocked." - Ray was experiencing the same headache- "The pain gets worse when I try to remember her name and her equipment. I don't even remember what shape her meter was or what tools I used to disassemble it."

"It makes sense. Those informations could influence our future." - Egon took off his glasses, feeling mentally exhausted.

"I hope she's having a better life now."- Winston looked at his own hand. That girl had held on to it so strongly as they had run to escape the Netherworld. He missed her. They all missed her. It felt as they'd been knowing her for ages even if they perfectly knew they had only spent a weekend with that stubborn, adorable teenager.

The physicist suddenly bursting out in a fit of laughter made them look at him – also making them clearly recall the girl asking them a couple of times why where they looking weird at her.

Memories seemed to come back in flashes when properly triggered.

"Should I call Janine and tell her we're pregnant or let her remember by herself?"- the man managed to ask, biting his lips to stop laughing. The thought they were going to have a kid wasn't scary anymore. Not as scary as when he first got to know about it.

"Let's wait till tomorrow morning."- Peter grinned his best wicked grin. - "I just had a great idea."


	9. Epilogue

Opening her eyes, the girl sat up abruptly, almost falling off the couch. "_Couch?_"- she thought, looking around. For a second the firehouse's rec area felt unknown to her. What was that weird dream all about? It felt so real... Her head hurt too.

"Head hurting, darlin'?"- her mother noticed her expression of pain and crossed the room to sit by her.

"Yeah... I had some weird dream... where is everyone?"- the blonde scratched her head, looking around.

The woman glanced at the wall clock - "They're upstairs in the lab. Do you want something for your headache?"

"I-I don't know... I feel weird..."- she stammered, feeling confused. Her head hurt so damn much it was hard to keep eyes open.- "Mama..."

The redhead sighed, thinking that her girl was too stressed. That morning she had one of her fights with the new team. - "I know you had a fight with the kids, but you need to accept them. You look so worn out."

The teenager frowned. She didn't like those 'kids', as her mother would call them. They were college students, not kids. Yet the original Ghostbusters still had to babysit them. Her father had risked a couple of times to lose his teaching job and she didn't approve that situation one bit.

She and her semiautomatic proton gun alone were more skilled than those four idiots, even if they had started ghostbusting one year earlier than her. - "It's not because of them." - she put on her best stubborn face and crossed her arms, pouting.- "I don't know why but I need to talk about my dream with Dad. I... I keep hearing this name ringing in my head..."- she hoped she hadn't been possessed by some stupid ghost.- "Evie. Evie, Evie, Evie... I can't get it out of my mind."

"I'll go get the guys."- her mother stood up. That name made her think about something she couldn't focus, but it felt like it was something important. The girl was about to say something but her mom was faster- "Don't worry, the kids have been sent out on a long and slimey bust."

Janine walked upstairs as her 14 years old daughter giggled delighted from the couch.

_Evie_. It felt so familiar. The redhead kept wrecking her brain about it as she knocked on the lab's door. She stopped knocking when her hand got gently stopped by a bigger one.

"Are you feeling alright?"

The woman looked at her husband's amused face as she frowned. - "Yeah, I'm sorry... I was trying to remember something." - she lowered her hand, feeling embarrassed but not letting her face go red - "Egon, do you know who or what is 'Evie'?"- she asked, headache faintly rising from the back of her head.

Peter couldn't help slamming his fist on the table, the sudden noise making everyone turn to stare at him- "Dammit guys! I've tried to remember that name for years! Evie's the name. Her traps were round and her weapon was a gun. Her meter..."- the man kept listing everything he could remember.

"Her meter was about the size of a pocket mirror."- Ray felt as if a locked safe in his brain had suddenly opened up and its contents revealed.

"My meter?"- the teenager asked from the doorway, holding her school friendly self-built meter in her hands.

"Hello, Evie."- Egon greeted her using the name of her lost self. Now that he had remembered every detail that had been blocked, he wondered if it was casual that his daughter grew up to be a lot similar to her original version. It could be they all involountarily had molded her into becoming herself again. That was a thought so intriguing he had troubles saving it for later. - "We've waited a long time to meet you again, you know?"

Her father's words triggered a chain reaction inside her. A flow of faded memories from the erased time in which her surname was Venkman crowded in her head. She gasped, pressing one hand over her mouth. She could identify with that girl from the dream. Just it was not a dream and the girl was her very self. - "I... I made it...?"- she started sobbing, feeling a strong sense of relief.

Everyone gathered closer around her as she cried. She felt her mother embracing her from behind, holding her tight.

They silently agreed to postpone any discussion to when the girl would be up to it. She had to be very shaken, she had just discovered that the tale about the time travelling girl they used to tell her when she was a young child was totally not an invented story.

* * *

"How are you?"

Egon's voice came from behind her as she was lost admiring the sun set from the rooftop, sitting on an old blanket.  
She was so lost she didn't even hear his voice. A set of candles was burning a few inches away from her feet, making shadows dance as they flickered.

He sat by her, waiting for her to notice him. November's cold air felt pleasant.

"Oh... Dad."- she finally got aware of his presence a couple of minutes later, once the sun had disappeared behind the skyline of the City. - "It feels so strange."

"You're not her."- he passed an arm around her shoulders- "She is a peculiar time paradox double."

"She's inside me."- the girl leaned on him, sighing.

"Then think of it as if she donated you her body." - he simply said, knowing it would have tickled her dark side.

"Like when you undergo a heart transplant and you start knowing stuff you couldn't know about the donor's life?"- her eyes twinkled. She loved that kind of stories.- "I love the way you think, Professor."

Egon smiled. He had pushed the right buttons and had a feel she would have dealt with it very easily. - "So... Want to go on a mission tomorrow afternoon? One of my assistants is away and..."

She didn't let him finish- "...and I could wear some fake boobs and a wig and pose as your fave assistant?"

She loved university life. Especially from the side of the staff. There were a lot of stories about one of the professor's assistants being his gifted 14 years old daughter. Offcourse it made her feel like a god and she had all the intentions to keep feeding the gossip. At least until she would be old enough to become a legitimate assistant.

"Just this time let's not blow up the lab or they'll have my head on a plate."- he recommended, shooting her a stern look.

She nodded and couldn't help but smile.


End file.
